Beyblade Town 2: The Return of Zeo Zaggart
by xxstarsnowxx
Summary: Now that the battle with Excalibar is over, Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land has entered into an era of peace. But it doesn't last long. Zeo Zaggart returns, and the town must live up to its name. But is it possible? Story contains most Metal Masters characters and some from 4D. Also, Zeo, Tyson, Kai, Ray, Max, Kenny, and Hilary arrive in the town. What will happen next?
1. The Trip

**Well, here's my next story. It's a continuation of Beyblade Town, with all the shops. I would recommend reading Beyblade Town first. It won't make much sense otherwise. (Link: s/8282788/1/Beyblade_Town ) Just a few new characters added. Bear with me, as the town comes in in the next chapter. This one if just setting the scene for the rest of the book. Enjoy!**

_(Takes place just before the G-Revolution series)_

_Chapter 1 The Trip_

"Oh man Ray!" gushed Tyson happily. "I can't believe you sprung and got us these tasty burgers!"

Ray had broken down at Tyson and Max's pleading and ordered all of the Bladebreakers burgers. One for everyone and five for Tyson. After everyone was done (it had taken Tyson the longest), the Bladebreakers exited the restaurant and met up with Hilary, who refused to be in a restaurant with Tyson.

"Well guys, what are we going to do today?" asked Max.

Kenny pushed up his glasses. "I don't know. Ask Tyson. He seems to run the show here."

Tyson brightened up. "Let's go beyblade!"

"Tyson, you've beybladed before breakfast, after breakfast, before lunch, and now you want to blade some more after lunch?" asked Hilary. "_I_ for one say we do something different for once."

Tyson had to agree with that. He scrambled around his brain for something to do. "Hey, you know who we haven't seen in a while?" he asked them all.

"A lot of people," responded Kai.

"Specifics please, Kai," Tyson prompted.

Kai shrugged. He really didn't care.

"Zeo!" cried out Tyson, answering his own question.

Kenny said, "Yeah! We haven't seen him since the tag-team battle at the world championships!"

"Well, off we go!" Tyson marched off toward Zeo Zaggart's house. The rest of the Bladebreakers followed.

* * *

Ding dong! Dr. Zaggart answered the door. "What do you kids want? I'm in the middle of some important-oh, it's you, Tyson."

"Hello Doctor. Is Zeo around?" Tyson asked him.

"Actually," the Doctor told him, "Zeo went to America. You'll find him there, if you take the expense of buying airplane tickets." The doctor shut the door.

"Yay!" said Tyson excitedly. "Ray, I don't suppose you have enough money on hand to buy plane tickets."

"Nope." Ray looked sad. "I spent my last dime buying you your fifth burger."

"Max?" asked Tyson.

Max held out his empty hands. "My mom could arrange a hotel for us, but I'm not able to get us plane tickets."

Hilary too said she hadn't got enough money for all of them to take a trip. Everyone looked expectantly at Tyson, who was rummaging around his pockets. They sighed when he turned them inside-out. "Guess I'm broke too," he said sheepishly.

"I'll call Mr. Dickenson," said Kenny, who called on a nearby payphone and hung up with a frown. "Sorry. He isn't available at the time. His answering machine said he took a trip to Indonesia."

Ray looked to the last possible option. "Kai, you don't happen to have any spare cash, do you?"

"No," said Kai. "But I have my credit card."

"Sweet!" said Tyson with a grin. "We're lucky your grandfather is totally loaded with cash!"

Kai's expression didn't change when he got to the airport to fly to New York and realized he had to pay an airfare of $999.99 per person. That was over $6,000 with baggage prices included in the total. Nor did Kai smile when Tyson grinned at him and said, "Way to fork over the cash, man!" He simply pointed out that he had charged their airfare to his credit card.

Once on the plane, Tyson finally calmed down. He was sitting by Max, and Ray was with Kenny, which left Kai and Hilary together. Kai called window seat.

Tyson fell asleep on the plane early in the flight, which left Kenny playing games on his laptop, Max, Ray, and Hilary checking out their in-flight radios, and Kai silently staring ahead of him.

* * *

A few hours later, the plane touched down in New York. It wasn't an entirely smooth landing, and jolted Tyson out of his sleep. "Who? Wha? Let me at 'em!" Tyson exclaimed. Then he calmed down when he remembered their trip to America to find Zeo Zaggart. Needless to say, this made Tyson run to the front of the plane and demand to be let off first, much to the annoyance of the flight attendant, who didn't recognize the two time world beyblade champ.

Max's mom met them when they picked up their baggage and drove them to their hotel. By then, it was evening, so they all went to the water park at the hotel. Max, Ray, Tyson, Kenny, and Hilary had fun sliding down water slides, while Kai sat at a table and refused to join them.

After that refreshing opportunity, they all retired to their hotel rooms to spend the night. Tyson couldn't wait to go find Zeo the next day.

* * *

Zeo Zaggart checked out of his hotel at 11:00 pm. He hadn't had the confidence to beyblade since his loss to King. It had been so stunning, so shocking. Zeo hadn't even had time to call out his bit beast Cerberus. He had trained both day and night to prepare himself and become stronger.

"I won't lose again," he whispered to his bey.


	2. A Day At Zeo's Zoo

_Chapter 2 A Day At Zeo's Zoo_

It was a hot summer day in Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land, and Yu and Kenta had gone to Ian's Ice Cream to get a cool treat. As they ate their ice cream, Yu asked Kenta where he wanted to go next.

"Oh. Hmm..." Kenta thought for a bit. "I know! Let's go to the zoo!"

After finishing their ice cream, Yu and Kenta headed off to Zeo's Zoo and each bought a day pass. Kenta headed to the aquarium to gape at fish, but Yu headed over to the apes and monkeys building. Once in there, Yu saw Masamune, who was munching popcorn and having a stare-down contest with a chimpanzee.

"Hey Masamoomoo," called out Yu. "I think I see the resemblance between you and that monkey."

"Yu!" cried Masamune, dropping his popcorn in surprise. "Look what you made me do! I lost the stare-down _and_ my popcorn."

Just then, Zeo Abyss walked up to them. "If you have been paying _any _attention to the information, Yu, you would have realized that a chimpanzee is an ape."

"How do you figure that, Zeo?" asked Masamune.

Zeo sighed. "Look at the sign. A chimp has no tail, therefore it is an ape. See that golden lion tameron over there? It has a tail, so it is a monkey. Now if you'll excuse me, I must go find a group that I was supposed to give a private tour to."

Yu giggled as Zeo left. "Hey Masamune, let's go look at some other animals." Yu and Masamune headed over to the African exhibit, where they discovered Kyoya and Nile in front of the lion exhibit. Yu ran up behind them and yelled "Boo!" They didn't jump. Kyoya just sighed and moved on to look at the cheetah exhibit.

Masamune crowded up behind him. "Ooh! Yu! Come look at this monkey!"

"He he! That's a cheetah," Yu told Masamune.

Kyoya just stared at him and then moved back over to where Nile was now looking at gazelles. He wondered what in the universe Masamune had meant by calling a cheetah an monkey, and heard Yu arguing with him about tails, no tails, and primates.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," said Masamune. "Let's go see the pandas!" He was still upset about the 'serious lack of pandas' in China.

After some fun at the panda exhibit, Masamune said good-bye to Yu and headed off to Gingka's Gangly Burgers. When he got there, Gingka cam out to meet him. Business at the restaurant was rather slow today, so Gingka and Masamune started a food fight. (Actually, it was Masamune's fault.) They had started by playing catch with burgers, then meatballs, and then the spaghetti noodles themselves.

Madoka came out and yelled at them for making such a mess, and they all took four hours to clean up the entire spaghetti covered restaurant.

"Madoka," whined Gingka, who was tired of cleaning up. "I thought we only sold burgers. What's with the spaghetti?"

"It's today's special, smarty," Madoka snapped back. She hated cleaning up after _their _messes.

"Whew," said Masamune. He ran a finger across a table top and inspected it. "Perfectly clean! You know what that means? It's time to make it messy again!"

Gingka groaned and left. He didn't want to clean up for _another_ four hours. Madoka also left. Masamune left too, but only after making a mess and not cleaning up. After all, he had some spare cash, so he called Konzern's Kool Kleening and the clerk said they would send someone right away. Masamune smiled, hung up, and then went to Salhan's Supersoaking Water Park to have fun and cool down.

* * *

Julian Konzern had finally made it to the eleventh floor of the Beyblade Battlegrounds. "Which of us do you choose to battle?" Kyoya asked him.

Julian responded right away. "I'll battle Nile first, and once I defeat him, I'll beat you next, Kyoya."

Nile loaded his bey on his launcher. "We'll see about that! 3!"

"2!" called Julian.

"1!" they said simultaneously.

Bring! Bring! Julian sighed and lowered his bey. He pulled out his ringing cell phone. "Hello? This is Julian Konzern, about to bey battle, so this had better be important!"

Kyoya and Nile heard a long pause, and then Julian yelled "Stupid Freshman!" and slammed his phone shut.

"What was that about?" Kyoya asked.

Julian sighed. "That was a call from Tyson Freshman, the most incompetent person on my entire staff at Konzern's Kool Kleening. He never knows what to do, and was given a lone assignment at Gingka's Gangly Burgers. However, he needed help because the mess is apparently terrible, so he called me! What is his problem? I'm not a mere staff member to be ordered around! He didn't even bother calling headquarters to see if anyone else on the staff was free. Now if you'll excuse me, I must go to "help" Tyson. Bye."

After Julian was out of earshot, Nile said: "Wow. We never get to battle him. This has to be the third time this has happened."

"It is," said Kyoya with a shrug. "At least now we got an explanation."


	3. The Search For Zeo Zaggart

_Chapter 3 The Search For Zeo Zaggart_

"Wake up! Wake up everyone!" called out Tyson, who was jumping around on his bed. He didn't wait long for them to get up, and headed downstairs for a buffet breakfast at the hotel. He was met by Hilary, who was already at breakfast, and had been thoughtful enough to save places for everyone. Tyson loaded his plate and dug in.

Ray showed up next, dressed and ready to go. A few minutes later, Max showed up, along with Kenny. Tyson told them his elaborate plan for finding Zeo Zaggart between mouthfuls. "So...I think we should...ask everyone we...see on the...streets if they...have seen...Zeo."

"Tyson," said Kenny. "I don't think that plan will get us very far. It would be far more effective to ask clerks at hotels if Zeo Zaggart was checked in."

"Well Chief," said Tyson, slapping Kenny on the back and almost making him choke on his french toast. "That's why you're the Chief!"

"Um... Tyson," said Max. "That doesn't make much sense.

Hilary put in her two cents. "It's all we have to go on. Maybe we should have asked Zeo's father for specifics."

"Nah," said Ray. "He practically slammed the door in our faces after all."

"Well, whatever!" said Tyson. "Let's keep eating!" He went up for thirds.

"Well, I'm all ready to go," Tyson told his friends.

* * *

Kenny stumbled out with a huge backpack on.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Tyson. "We're not going on a wilderness hike! We're going around the urban streets of New York."

"You're practically inviting pick-pockets," Ray told him.

Kenny grumbled, but trekked back up to their room and downsized his packing. When he got back, Max and Hilary had arrived, and were ready to go.

"Well, let's head out to find Zeo!" exclaimed Max.

"Wait guys!" Hilary called after them. "Shouldn't we wait for Kai?"

"Speaking of Kai, I don't remember seeing him at breakfast," said Kenny.

"I don't remember seeing him since last night," said Ray.

"Haha! We could be waiting quite a while," Tyson told them. "Kai has a habit of showing up at the last moment.

They all sighed and waited for about fifteen minutes, but Kai didn't show up. Anyways, the Bladebreakers (minus Kai) took Tyson's advice and left without their fifth wheel (Hilary was the sixth). Tyson refused to go along with Kenny's plan and dragged Max along with him to ask random people on the street if they had seen Zeo.

A lot of people had no idea what he was talking about, but asked him for his autograph or if they could have a picture taken with him, seeing as he had been the world champ two years in a row. Tyson smiled and soaked up the attention while Max stood uncomfortably off to the side. People also asked him for an autograph.

Meanwhile, Kenny, Ray, and Hilary were having no luck checking hotels for a 'Zeo Zaggart'. "Do you think he's maybe in that one?" asked Hilary.

They went in and checked. No.

"How about that one?" suggested Kenny. No.

"That one?" asked Ray, pointing to a dinky motel at the edge of the city.

"I doubt it," said Hilary. "It looks too rundown."

They walked past it, when Ray saw a a flash of blue inside. He spun toward the window and tried to get a good look inside. Sure enough, it was Kai. "Kai!" called Ray, running into the motel with Kenny and Hilary on his heels. "Kai, what are you doing here?" Ray asked.

"What do you think?" asked Kai in a bored voice. "I'm looking for Zeo so we can get this lame trip over with. This guy," he said, jerking a thumb at the clerk behind him, "says that a 'Zeo Zaggart' checked out at eleven pm last night."

Hilary rushed up to the clerk. "Did he say where he was going?" she asked.

The clerk scratched his head. "Yeah, I think he said he was going to... Vermont?" He made it sound like a question.

"Where in Vermont?" asked Kenny.

"I think he said that it was southern Vermont." The clerk sounded slightly more certain this time.

As Hilary was thanking the man for his help, Kai was already walking out the door. He found Tyson and had to physically drag him out of his mob of crazed fans, who were way out of control by now. Ray dragged Max away from his fans too, and told them both that they thought Zeo was in southern Vermont.

"Yeah! Let's go!" yelled Tyson, forgetting his fans in a split second. "Road trip!"

"Yeah, but none of us can drive," said Kenny.

Max was already on the phone with his mom. "My mom says she's free now and can pick us up and drop us off in southern Vermont, but after that, we're on our own."

"We'll deal with that when we get there," said the voice of reason: Kai.

"Next stop, Vermont!" exclaimed Tyson happily.


	4. Vacations and a Hike

_Chapter 4 Vacations and a Hike_

It was a not-so-busy afternoon at the Beyblade Battlegrounds. Kyoya and Nile were very bored at the top of their pyramid, so they unanimously decided to take the rest of the day off. Nile was hungry, so he stopped at Toby's Tacos on the way home.

Kyoya took no stops. He got home and was about to turn on the TV when he saw something off to the side that caught his eye. He walked over and picked it up. It was his voucher of plane tickets to go to Cozumel, Mexico, which he had won at Masamune's party. He sighed; now would be the perfect time for a vacation. He packed his luggage and headed out the door into his car. He drove out of town, headed for the airport.

* * *

Meanwhile... "Are you sure you know where we're going?" asked Ray.

"Of course I do! I have the map and compass!" Tyson told him. Max's mom had dropped them off in a forest in southern Vermont, and Tyson was trying to find the nearest town.

Ray looked closer. "I think you're holding the map upside-down, Tyson." Ray flipped the map around.

"Oh!" said Tyson. "_That's _why I thought we were in New Hampshire! Well guys, the nearest road looks about five miles away and the nearest town about twenty. What do you think? I say we head for the road and hitch-hike to a town."

"Looks like that's our best option," said Kenny glumly. No way was _he _going to hike twenty miles. He felt like he had already walked fifty!

Tyson led the way, and Kenny used his laptop to could their miles. (Internet service was down.) Hilary complained about blisters on her blisters as Tyson sang "Left, left, left, right, left!" Ray made sure Tyson was heading the right way, and Max was struggling along with a bunch of Kenny's luggage that he couldn't carry. Kai followed silently along in the back of the odd procession.

Over an hour later, Kenny announced that they had gone exactly five miles. They headed onward and soon came to a curve in the road. A car had just raced past them; they were too late for a ride.

"No!" cried Hilary.

* * *

It was early evening, around five o'clock. Nile decided to pay Kyoya a visit at his house. Ding dong! The doorbell rang. No one answered. Nile counted out thirty seconds and rang again. Ding dong! Still no answer. So Nile walked next door to Gingka's house. Gingka answered before he even rang the bell.

"What's up Nile?" he asked. "Masamune, Yu, Tsubasa, Rose, and I are having an Xbox tournament. Care to join?"

"Actually, I'm just wondering if you know where Kyoya is. He's not home," Nile told Gingka.

"Oh," said Gingka. "Well, I thought that King mentioned..." he trailed off.

"Mentioned what?" prompted Nile.

"Um... I forgot," said Gingka. He shut the door and went back to his Xbox tournament.

Nile sighed, and went to ask King King himself. Once at the castle, King welcomed Nile in and asked him what he wanted to know.

"Gingka said you knew where Kyoya was, and I'm looking for him, so I came here," Nile said.

"Yes. I heard from someone, and I can't remember who, but that person said they saw Kyoya leave town with a bunch of gear. I assume he must be going on the vacation he won at that party of Masamune's," said King.

"You know," said Nile. "That sounds like a great idea. I'll go on my vacation as well."

Nile thanked King, went home, packed, and then got in his car and drove off to the airport. He wondered what he would do in LA. Oh well, he thought. I can always decide what to do and where to go once I get there. Nile left town at 85 miles per hour. Reckless, but not nearly as reckless as Ryuga's 95 miles per hour.

* * *

When will the next car come?" whined Max. The car that the Bladebreakers had missed had been the only one they had seen going either way on the road. Kenny was laying in the middle of the road with one ear to the pavement. He was listening for cars coming on the street. He claimed he would be able to feel the vibrations sooner than see the vehicle.

"I-I feel something!" he cried out to them all.

"Who? Where?" asked Max excitedly. He rushed into the street to get close to Kenny.

"If there's a car coming, the last place you want to be is in the street," remarked Ray.

Max and Kenny rushed off the road. "Oh no! My laptop!" cried Kenny. He had left it in the road. He rushed back out into the road, grabbed his computer and rushed out, narrowly missing being hit by Nile, who was still driving at a reckless 85 miles per hour.

Nile slammed on the brakes and screeched to a halt. "Are you kids all right?" he asked Max and Kenny.

Tyson rushed up as the two nodded. "Can you help us?" he asked Nile.

"That depends. What do you need?" asked Nile.

"Can you drive us to the nearest town?" asked Tyson.

"Sure," said Nile. "I just left it about a minute ago."

Ray looked at the map. "But the nearest town is fifteen miles away still. You weren't driving _that _fast."

"Oh, you must not have an updated map," Nile told him. "The town I'm from is relatively new to the area, so it hasn't been put on any but the very newest maps."

"Well," said Ray. "Just take us to that town."

The Bladebreakers and Hilary piled into Nile's SUV and Nile turned around to head back into town. "By the way," Tyson said. "Do you know if a Zeo Zaggart has been in your town recently?"

Nile smiled. "Oh, I highly doubt it."

"Why not?" asked Hilary.

"You'll see when we get there," said Nile.

Kai frowned in the passenger seat. He had a strange feeling that Nile knew of a connection between Zeo and the town, but what kind of connection could it be?


	5. Zeo Zaggart's Grand Entrance

**Chapter title says it all. Enjoy & review!**

_Chapter 5 Zeo Zaggart's "Grand" Entrance_

"So what do you do in your town?" asked Max curiously.

"You mean what is my profession?" asked Nile. When Max nodded, he continued. "I work at the Beyblade Battlegrounds. It's a place where you beyblade to get to the top, after conquering other obstacles of course."

"No way!" exclaimed Tyson. "I love beyblading! Can I go there?"

"Tyson, we should be grateful that...uh...what's your name?" asked Hilary.

"My name is Nile."

"Okay, Nile. We're grateful to you for driving us to our destination," finished Hilary. "I'm sorry about Tyson pestering you for side favors."

"Oh, it's fine," Nile assured her. "I can take you all there if you want. Although...It was closed up. Oh well, I'll open it again."

"Cool!" Tyson told him. "Can we, like, watch you referee a match or something?"

"Oh, I don't ref the matches," Nile told them. "I'm the one who takes on challengers who make it all the way to the top."

"Wow!" breathed Tyson. "Can I battle you?"

Nile laughed. "First you'll have to make it to the top."

Ray looked out the window. "Guys, look at this!"

Nile smiled. "Welcome to my town."

"I-I don't believe this," said Kenny. He gaped at the arching sign welcoming them to the town.

"You'd better believe it," said Kai. "Because it's true."

The sign at the entrance to Nile's town said 'Welcome to Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land. Population 1,012'.

"I'll get you to Hyoma's Hotel and drop you off there," Nile told them. Kai nodded. The others were too shocked to do anything.

* * *

After Kai checked in at the hotel, he dragged Tyson and the others into their respective hotel rooms. They were too shocked to even move. "Come on Tyson. Don't you want to go to the Beyblade Battlegrounds and do some beyblading?" Kai asked. Anything to make Tyson get back to normal.

"Yeah, yeah!" Tyson snapped back to normal. "Take me there, Kai." Everyone else was still frozen in shock. It appeared Kai would have to oblige Tyson and take him battling.

"Fine," said Kai. He exited the hotel with Tyson right behind him, keeping up a steady stream of one-sided conversation.

Once they were several blocks down the street, Kai was confused and didn't know where the Beyblade Battlegrounds were. After all, he was new to this town. For a population of only 1,012, it seemed rather roomy and large and had many attractions. Kai stopped to ask a red-haired boy for directions.

"Excuse me, but could you point me in the direction of the Beyblade Battlegrounds?" Kai asked politely.

"Uh, yeah. The site is that way," the boy told him. "But I wouldn't bother going there if I were you. It's closed because Kyoya and Nile left on vacation."

"But Nile's in town," piped up Tyson. "He drove us here."

"Oh, you're Nile's friends? I"m glad to meet you. My name is Gingka Hagane, but you can call me Gingka," said Gingka.

Of course we will, thought Kai. Why would we call you by your last name? "Well, this guy here needs some cheering up. What do you suggest?" Kai asked Gingka, pointing to Tyson.

"Why don't you come on a walk with me?" asked Gingka. "I just finished an Xbox tournament, so I'm off to see a bunch of my friends. Want to come?"

"Alright," said Kai. Tyson nodded in agreement.

Gingka led them around town. He led them to Ryuga's Readables, where the fountain spit at Gingka, who dodged, and then the water ended up hitting Tyson. He led them to Ryuto's Roller Coasters to have some amusement park fun. He led them to Hycuto's Dog Food for who knows what reason. They visited Ryo, Gingka's father, who was back in Hikaru's Hospital. When Tyson asked why, he was told that it was a long story. They went to Kenta's Ketchup to chat and not to buy. Gingka led them to Julian's Junkyard, where Tyson joined Gingka in scrounging for bey parts. Kai excused himself, saying that he liked Dranzer just the way it was, thank you very much. The second last stop was at Dashan's Donuts, where the weary travelers got a bite to eat.

Finally, Kai asked Gingka, "Can you show us the Beyblade Battlegrounds?"

"I sure can!" said Gingka, licking donut frosting off his fingers. They followed him, and soon beheld a gimungous, tan pyramid. "Behold, the Beyblade Battlegrounds." Gingka quoted Kyoya's words. Tyson's mouth fell open.

Gingka turned away. He had seen the pyramid countless times, so its awe was now lost on him. "It took them both not even a day to build," he told Kai and Tyson.

All Tyson could say was "Wow."

"_They _built it?" asked Kai. "As in, they themselves built it by hand?"

"Oh, hardly by hand, per say," Gingka informed them. "Kyoya and Nile built it with the help of their beys."

"They must have strong bit beasts," said Kai thoughtfully.

"They _do _say that Kyoya's Leone is like a wild beast on the hunt," said Gingka, who had not heard Kai clearly. "Let's go back to your hotel. It's getting dark."

Half-way to the hotel, Gingka ran into King. "Hey! King!" called out Gingka. "Look at these new people in town!"

King turned. "Greetings. Welcome to Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land."  
Tyson almost froze up again, but managed to ask a question. "Why does your town have that name?"

King looked surprised. After all, the town's name seemed rather straightforward and self-explanatory to him. "Well, I had originally named the town after my arm, which launched my bey to defeat Zeo Zaggart, who then gave me this land. Then, at a town meeting, Gingka wanted a name change, so I named it Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land."

"I get that," said Tyson. "But why don't you like Zeo?"

"Because he looks terrible, and I personally found him irritating," King told him.

"Oh." Tyson couldn't think of a come-back for that.

King really liked to talk, so he started to tell Kai and Tyson about the town's history. Half-way through, he was interrupted by the sound of motorcycles. A biker gang came racing out of town, going _way _over the speed limit.

"Well, that was odd," stated Gingka, who had stuck around because he had nothing better to do.

"Very," said King, who then continued the story.

* * *

At the head of the biker gang was Busujima, the leader. He revved his bike, popped a wheely, and raced down the road leading out of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land. Ryutaro raced after him. Sora popped a wheely, almost fell, and then sped super fast to catch up to the others. Also included in the biker gang were Busujima's followers, Reji, Dan, and Reiki.

The gang sped out of town with Busujima in the lead. He revved his engine once more, checked his mirrors, looked ahead, and swerved violently, screeching to a halt. His fellow bikers also halted.

"Sorry dudette," he said to the green-haired girl he had almost run over. "Need a lift?"

"I AM NOT A GIRL!" the girl, I mean boy, screamed.

"Oh," said Busujima. "Need a lift into town, dude?"

"Fine," the boy said. "What's the catch?"

"You get a makeover at Tetsuya & Teru's Hair & Nails," said Busujima.

The boy wasn't impressed, but accepted the ride, planning to ditch the biker gang once in the town. He hopped on Busujima's motorcycle and rode into the town. Entering the arch, he saw the town's name: Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land.

"How dare he!" the boy exclaimed. He did a tuck and roll off Busujima's bike and crashed into the edge of the sign. "Ow..." He walked into town and soon found the one he was looking for. "Hey!" he called out.

King spun around and had to choke down a yell of terror. "It's Zeo Zaggart!" he shouted.

"Zeo!" called out Tyson, rushing over to his friend.

Zeo pushed him aside. "King, how could you name your town against me?"

King and Gingka had already fled the premises by the time he finished speaking. They couldn't stand Zeo. Kai had continued back to the hotel, leaving Tyson wondering exactly what had gone on. Then he remembered that the town's name was Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land, and the blader who defeated Zeo was King King himself (he had learned that from King's story). Tyson left the area laughing and headed back to his hotel. Everyone had been unfrozen by the time he got back. Once he arrived, he realized that it wasn't funny.

**I just figured out how to put in that horizontal bar thing. I think it makes this all less confusing when I jump around from character to character. I'll probably start re-doing that on my Beyblade Town story as well, just so it makes more sense, but don't quote me on that.**


	6. Zeo Zaggart's Rampage

**Well, here's the next chapter. Just so you know, I'll be posting every week probably. I'm slowing down because of school work. Well, enjoy, and you know what to do! Read & Review!**

_Chapter 6 Zeo Zaggart's Rampage_

"Cree!" The eagle swooped down and landed on Tsubasa. "Cree!" she called to him.

"I see," Tsubasa told her. Then he let her fly away out over Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land.

Tsubasa walked down Otori street (he had named it himself), and walked into his shop. Rose was in there, attempting to help a customer. It was a failing attempt. The customer was Zeo Zaggart, and he was rampaging around the store.

"I will destroy everything in this town!" Zeo shouted. "And I will start with this store!"

Crash! A rack of tank tops smashed to the ground.

"Stop!" yelled Tsubasa.

Surprisingly, Zeo halted. "What?" he asked.

"You can't just barge into my store and destroy all my merchandise!" Tsubasa told him angrily. "Go some place else!" With that, he grabbed the intruder by the back of his shirt collar and flung him out the back door, which Rose held open. She slammed it shut behind him.

"Good riddance," Rose said.

"I hope he leaves and never comes back," remarked Tsubasa.

* * *

Mei Mei's Market was bustling with activity as usual. Right now, Mei Mei was bringing in the fresh produce, fruits, and other fresh foods. Bang! Crash! Mei Mei looked up from stocking a market stall. An ugly boy - Zeo Zaggart - was ruining her food and business. She recognized him from Kyoya and Nile's drawing of him.

"What are you doing?" she asked him in anger.

"What does it look like?" he asked. "I'm ruining your market."

"But why?"

"I hate all people in this town," responded Zeo. "I am here to ruin your business. I am here to ruin _all _of the businesses. Once they are all ruined, then the town will disappear, disappear!"

Mei Mei smirked. "You're just mad that this town's name is Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land," she taunted.

Zeo screamed and knocked over a basket of watermelons. Mei Mei kicked one at him, and he slipped and fell. "I won't forget this," he vowed as he vanished into a dark alley.

At the other end of the dark alley was Yuki's Yams. Yuki also remembered Zeo Zaggart from the picture and pelted him with rotten and stale yams until Zeo had to hide.

Zaggart's next stop was Zeo's Zoo. He was intrigued by this place and decided that he wanted to meet the person who had his name. First, he went to Tetsuya & Teru's Hair & Nails. He bought a short, black wig. Now no one would recognize him and he wouldn't be pelted with "Feed the Elephant" peanuts or monkey bananas.

Zeo disguised his voice when he bought a ticket because Gingka happened to be in line behind him. Once in the zoo, he asked around for Zeo. He found him, and soon discovered that they had completely different last names. One started with an "A" (Abyss), and one with a "Z" (Zaggart). Alphabetical opposites, although Zeo didn't tell Zeo that. He didn't want to blow his cover. So Zeo asked Zeo if he liked the town, and Zeo replied that he did.

(Okay, this is getting _really _confusing. I think I'll call them by their last names.) All right, so Zaggart chatted with Abyss for a while, and discovered that everyone in town loved it and seemed to like the name also. That made Zaggart angry. He left the zoo so that he wouldn't blow his cover. (Now I'll go back to first names.)

Zeo Zaggart trashed the wig and got a new one. This new one made him have red hair like Gingka. But he looked a lot different than Gingka, so no one confused the two of them. He went to Tobio's Post Office and messed up the mail until Tobio caught him and booted the "random wacko" out. At Argo's Appliances, he smashed some TVs and radios until Argo kicked out the "idiotic customer".

Zeo decided that he liked seeing people run from him and trashed the new wig too. Now he looked as normal as usual again. Also, everyone who had originally been in the town could now recognize him. He stopped at Ian's Ice Cream and got yesterday's Blue Moon thrown at him. He sighed, this would take _hours _to get out of his hair. He smartly decided to stop at a place that didn't sell messy food.

So naturally, he stopped at Ryuto's Roller Coasters and tried unsuccessfully to break the rides. He didn't do very well trying to bend the foot wide beams of steel that supported the King Cobra. This, he decided, was boring, so he left before he could be arrested for entering the fence surrounding the roller coaster that declared you must not enter because of the danger of electrocution.

Zeo Zaggart's next stop was the Beyblade Battlegrounds. He arrived on the premises, and vowed that he would tear the pyramid down brick by brick in front of its owners' horrified eyes. No one was around. (Nile had left on his vacation after dropping off the Bladebreakers and Hilary at their hotel; therefore the Beyblade Battlegrounds were closed.)

"Huuuuuh! Uuuuuuugh!" Zeo couldn't manage to move a single block from its position. "Wow, these builders were actually good," he said to himself. He launched his bey, Cerberus, but it did no damage. The only damage was taken by it. The attack ring had a slight nick in it. "No!" Zeo Zaggart hated when his bey got broken, nicked, scratched, or damaged at all, even if it was very slight. He kicked the pyramid for good measure, and hopped around saying "ow ow ow!" because his toe hurt.

Anyways, off he went back on his journey to torment people. His next stop was Ryuga's Readables. He began knocking over bookshelves and magazine racks. Then he saw an interesting title: _How to Beat Every Blader_. Gee, I sure could use one of those, he thought. He reached for it eagerly, but before he got his hands on it, he found himself two feet off the ground, facing a very angry Ryuga, who held him by his shirt collar.

"How dare you mess with my bookstore!" demanded Ryuga.

"Um...Ryuga...I think that's your name," said Zeo, stuttering. When Ryuga nodded, he continued. "You can trust me. I just wish to buy a copy of _How to Beat Every Blader_."

Ryuga shook him up and down. "Then why did you trash my shop!" he shouted in Zeo Zaggart's face. Zeo didn't answer. He was scared for the first time since he had come into town. "I wrote _How to Beat Every Blader _myself," Ryuga continued. "I own this shop, and refuse to sell you a copy. I know who you are, Zeo Zaggart, and I trust you not even as far as I could throw you."

As if to prove his point, he kicked open the door, carried Zeo outside, and threw him into the 'Welcome to Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land' sign, which was about a hundred yards away.

"_Definitely _don't trust him as far as I can throw him," said Ryuga with a smirk.


	7. Benkei's Illness

**As you know from the last chapter, Zeo Zaggart will be out of commission for a while. Enjoy this short story about Benkei.**

_Chapter 7 Benkei's Illness_

It was a rather busy day at Benkei's Bath & Beauty. These kind of days usually made Benkei feel happy inside and glowing outside as he counted his stacks of money. He usually was happy, and directed customers toward the most expensive and useful items. But today was different. He only felt...sad?...ill? Yes, that was it. He must be under the weather with a cold.

"Excuse me," Benkei told his head store manager, second-in-command only to him. "I'm going to leave you in charge. I think I'm sick." Benkei handed her his smiley face 'I'm in charge #1' badge.

Out in Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land, Benkei went to Gingka's Gangly Burgers; not to eat, but to ask his friend if he could figure out what kind of illness was keeping him down in the dumps.

"Hi Gingka," said Benkei.

Gingka was surprised to hear his normally cheerful friend sound so melancholy. "What's up, Benkei?" he asked, concerned. "Why are you so sad and gloomy?"

"Oh Gingka, I think I have a cold," Benkei sniffled sadly.

"Aww... That's too bad." Gingka rummaged around his pockets. "Sorry, I don't have any medicine. You should check out the pharmacy counter at the department store."

Benkei nodded and left for Damian's Department Store. Once he got there, he did as Gingka had advised him and went straight to the pharmaceutical isle. He picked out some generic brands of cold medicine and some anti-depressants. Then he went home and lay on the sofa after taking his medication.

Ding dong! Benkei must have dozed off, because it was mid-afternoon when the doorbell awoke him. He headed over and opened the door. It was Kenta.

"Hey buddy," said Benkei in the same gloomy, sad voice.

"Benkei, Gingka told me you felt ill, so I decided to come and cheer you up." Kenta smiled, and appeared to be holding something behind his back.

"What's that you have behind your back?" asked Benkei.

Kenta smiled even more. "It's a present!"

"Ooh!" Benkei came out the door. "Is it a steak? A steak would help me get well really quick."

"Nope!" said Kenta, still smiling. He pulled out the present from behind his back and shoved it in Benkei's face. "Ta da!"

Benkei frowned. "Orange juice? You brought me orange juice?"

"Yeah!" Kenta was excited. "It has lots of vitamin C and thirty other essential vitamins and minerals!."

"Well, thanks Kenta," said Benkei. Kenta then left. As much as he liked his friend and wanted to cheer him up, Kenta didn't want to get sick. Benkei went back to the sofa to rest up.

A few hours later, the he made himself a pizza and ate the whole thing. He even choked down some of the orange juice that Kenta had given to him.

As he finished eating, the doorbell rang again, so Benkei went to answer. It was Tsubasa. Tsubasa also appeared to have a gift for Benkei behind his back, but Benkei just spoke in his gloomy tone. "Hi Tsubasa."

"Oh, you really don't sound good," said Tsubasa. "I brought you flowers. When you can smell them, that means your cold is gone."

"Thanks, but I can smell them from over here," said Benkei.

"Oh, well then, bye." Tsubasa left.

Benkei took some more cold medicine, but still felt rather sick. The bell rang again, and this time it was Yu at the door. He did not appear to have brought a present.

"Ben ben, let's go for a walk!" exclaimed Yu. "The fresh air will make you feel all better."

"Gee, thanks Yu." Benkei headed out.

Yu led him to King's castle, thinking King could surely help Ben ben. Upon arriving, Yu and Benkei were led up to where King was.

"What can I do for you?" King asked.

"Ben ben is sick. His medicine isn't helping him. What should we do?" asked Yu.

"Well," said King. "I'm not sure I can help you here. I don't even know what kind of illness or cold Benkei has. If I were to give you advice, I would tell you to go to the one person in town who has time and knows all."

"And who would that be?" asked Benkei.

"Ryuga."

* * *

"Ryuga," said Yu. "Can you help Benkei? He is sick."

Ryuga just frowned. "What? You want me to play doctor? You want me to use a stethoscope and tell you what kind of illness he has? You have to be joking!"

"Yu is not joking," Yu responded in third person.

"Fine fine, I will give you a diagnosis," said Ryuga. "But that's it. His illness is quite simple. Benkei is suffering from a severe case of Kyoya withdrawal. The only solution is for him to see Kyoya again."

Yu turned to Benkei. "Is it true, Ben ben?"

Benkei started crying. "It is! I miss Kyoya so much! Kyoya! Kyoya! Kyoya!"

Ryuga rolled his eyes. "Please cry in the street and not in my store," he told Benkei, pushing him and Yu out the door and shutting it behind them.

People all around heard Benkei crying out "Kyoya! Kyoya!" Gingka actually thought that something terrible had happened and rushed to the scene. He cheered up Benkei a bit by giving him a steak, but the only solution was for Kyoya to come back from his vacation. Well, that may or may not happen for a while.

**Please review! :)**


	8. Tyson's Adventure

**Just wanted to say thanks to all my faithfull reviewers! Here's a Labor Day present for you! Another chapter! In celebration of both Labor Day and the fortunate disappearance of my writer's block. Once again, Zeo Zaggart is still out of the picture, due to his being slammed into the sign by Ryuga.**

_Chapter 8 Tyson's Adventure_

Tyson was bored at the hotel. Sure, it had an indoor water park (which he found lame), a buffet breakfast (where he ate way too much each morning), and various other amenities, but he was getting hotel-sick. "W E NEED TO GO SOMEWHERE!" he shouted to his friends over breakfast.

Ray winced. "We're only two feet away, Tyson. Lower your voice!"

Tyson went on as though he hadn't heard Ray, although he did lower his voice a few decibels. "I have decided to go outside and do something. You all can join me if you want." Tyson went outside as the others continued to eat.

A few minutes later, everyone else in Tyson's group was done eating and most of them had gone to find Tyson. Max, Ray, Kenny, and Hilary didn't have far to look. Tyson had set up a stand about a block away. Hilary walked up first.

"Tyson! What is up with this?" she asked.

Tyson smiled. "I'm signing free autographs for people from the two time world beyblade champ!"

Ray looked at the people walking by. They seemed to be frowning at Tyson, and no one was stepping up for an autograph. "Um, Tyson. I don't think the people in this town like you."

Tyson then frowned and looked around. "Why doesn't anyone want an autograph?"

"You're no world champ!" said one person.

"Yeah," said another. "I haven't ever seen you defeat the Beyblade Battlegrounds, or Gingka, or Ryuga. No way are you the champ!"

"I'm telling you! I _am _the champ!" exclaimed Tyson.

Everyone left. They didn't believe Tyson. Then Gingka happened to walk by.

"Hey!" he exclaimed. "_I'm _the champ!"

"No, I am!" argued Tyson.

"Grr!"

"Grr!"

Hilary stepped in between them. "Stop it, guys!"

"You need to learn how to behave yourself, Tyson," said Kenny.

"Gingka too," added Max. He didn't want to heap _all _the blame on Tyson.

Gingka just shrugged. "Tyson, no one will ask for _your _autograph, but they'll all ask for _mine_!"

"So what!" said Ray, who was sick of all this signing business. "Let's do something else."

Tyson and Gingka agreed immediately, as did the others. Kenny wanted to go to Lavushka Library to read, so Gingka and the others dropped him off and went somewhere more exciting. Along the way, Hilary got side-tracked at Argo's Appliances because a fashion modeling show was being shown on some of the HD TVs for sale. Gingka, Tyson, Ray, and Max continued on without her. Kai had disappeared to who knows where after breakfast, and no one had seen him since.

On their stroll around the town, Kenta joined them. He hadn't had much business in his ketchup shop that morning. Kenta wanted to go to OTA Land, but Gingka refused him once more, even when Kenta pointed out that the Beyblade Battlegrounds were closed because Kyoya and Nile were on vacation. Gingka said that he didn't care to battle weak opponents, and would wait a few more days for the Beyblade Battlegrounds to open up. After all, Kyoya and Nile had been gone for almost a week now.

Kenta left them and went to OTA Land anyways. The next person the gang picked up was Yu, who invited them to come with him for a daily tournament of games at Chi & Chao's Chess & Checkers. They all accepted: After all, they had nothing better to do. When Tyson got into a chess tournament, he soon realized that thinking games were _so _not his thing, so he forfeited the match and played chutes and ladders with Yu, who had finally gotten enough coupons to buy it without paying a cent.

After the morning game session was over, Gingka and Yu led Tyson, Ray, and Max to King's Kitchen for brunch, which Yu told them was a "fancy kind of lunch." It was expensive too, and Gingka and Yu ended up footing the bill because Tyson didn't have change on him, Ray had never earned money since buying Tyson's fifth burger, and Max was out of cash from buying all sorts of random souvenirs, including an antique shower head from Selen's Showers, a glow in the dark yo-yo from Yu's Yo-yo's, and a duck-shaped soap bar from Sophie's Soap.

After the lovely buffet brunch, Gingka and Yu took Tyson, Ray, and Max to Demure's Theater. They watched a hilarious movie and left the theater laughing and smiling.

Once on the main street, they stopped smiling and leaped out of the way as Busujima, Sora, Reji, Dan, Reiki, and the rest of the biker gang sped past them; once more _way _over the speed limit.

"Are there any traffic cops around?" asked Ray.

"Yeah," said Gingka.

"Huh?" asked Max. "Why don't they do anything about this town's speeding problem?"

"The cops are super lazy around here, and aren't needed much because us bladers keep order in the town. Man, you should have seen when Excalibur attacked us that last time..." Gingka trailed off.

Tyson looked expectantly at Yu. "Well, what happened?"

"Oh, the first time King defeated their leader. The second time Kyoya defeated Julian, and the third time Ryuga beat up everyone!" said Yu excitedly.

Tyson had missed the last part; his mind was processing the name Julian quickly. "The same Julian that runs the junkyard?" he asked.

"That very one!" Yu told him. "He also is the head of Konzern's Kool Kleening. Want to go there?"

"Sure!" said Tyson. Max and Ray tagged along too. They didn't understand why Tyson was going to a cleaning facility, but at least walking somewhere was better than sitting around the hotel.

At the facility, they were greeted by a young man at the counter. His name tag read: Tyson F. "Oh cool!" exclaimed the Bladebreaker Tyson. "We have the same name!"

Tyson F. smiled. "My name is Tyson Freshman, what cleaning service do you need?"

"Oh, we're just here to look around," Tyson told him.

Tyson chatted with Tyson Freshman for a while. Ray checked his watch and was surprised to see how long they had been gone. "Should we get back to Gingka?" he asked Yu.

"Yeah," said Yu. "Grab our Tyson and let's get going! I hope the biker gang didn't run Gingka over while he was on his trip down memory lane."

The gang (not the biker gang) of Yu, Tyson, Ray, and Max discovered that Gingka had apparently awoken from memory lane and disappeared somewhere. By then, it was almost dinner time, so Yu took them to the supermarket area of Mei Mei's Market (there was also a farmers' market area), where they bought some pre-made subs and ate outside at some open tables.

After dinner, Ray announced that they should probably get back to their hotel. When they arrived, they found Hilary and Kenny already back from their excursions. They played Yu's chutes & ladders game for a while, and then Yu had to leave.

A few minutes after Yu had shut the door to the hotel rec room, it opened again.

"Kai!" called out Hilary.

"Where were you?" asked Max.

Kai shut the door behind himself. "Oh, here and there."

"Where is here and there?" asked Tyson, who was always curious.

"Well, I went to Ryuga's Readables, Demure's Theater, Doji's Dojo, and a bunch of other places," said Kai.

That reminded Tyson of something. "Hey Kai, you don't happen to have any spare change that I could...have, do you?"

"Even if I did, I wouldn't give it to you," Kai told him. "You'd probably buy something stupid, like five burgers, when you could make do with one."

Tyson looked deflated.

"Well, I'm going to bed early," said Kai. "Don't any of you dare disturb me, especially you, Tyson."

"Bye Kai!" called out Hilary as the door closed behind him. Then everyone laughed at Tyson.

**Hope you liked the chapter! Please keep reviewing! I love reading them all!**


	9. Chapter title won't fit!

**Never fear, the plot line is back! Enjoy!**

_Chapter 9 The Revenge of the Biker Gang & Zeo Zaggart's Rampage Part 2_

It was two days after Tyson's adventure when Kyoya went online to charter a flight back to the airport near Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land. His vacation in Mexico had been simply fabulous. Sadly, all good things eventually came to an end. Even though he had plenty of money to spend and could afford to stay for about another month because the Beyblade Battlegrounds was a very profitable business, Kyoya felt in his heart that he was needed urgently in Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land. He headed to the airport to get on his way home.

* * *

At almost the same time, Nile, who was loaded down with LA souvenirs and T-shirts, was also driving toward an airport for a flight to the airport nearest to Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land. Nile felt the same strange need to be back home that Kyoya felt, and though he had loved his vacation, he too knew that all good things come to an end. Therefore, he drove directly to the airport; sad to leave his vacation, but glad to get back to the Beyblade Battlegrounds. Nile absently wondered if the hitchhikers...what were their names? Tyler? Mark? And...Ray and Kai! Those were the only ones he remembered. They also had another guy and a girl, whose names he couldn't recall at all. Well, it probably wouldn't matter. Those visitors were looking for Zeo Zaggart, who Nile doubted would show his face in Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land.

* * *

The biker gang raced past the 'Welcome to Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land' sign at as high a speed as always. Once they were safely out of sight around the bend into the town, Zeo Zaggart stepped out from behind a tree and walked proudly into the town that was named against him. He had recovered from mild injuries and slight head trauma after being thrown into the welcome sign. There was no permanent damage except to his pride. Therefore, he was here to wreak more havoc and take his revenge on King King and all of the others in town.

Zeo Zaggart's Rampage part 2 started at Konzern's Kool Kleening, where he knocked the clerk (Tyson Freshman) into a rack of dry cleaning and trashed some mops. At Kenta's Ketchup, he knocked ketchup and mustard off shelves, loomed over the clerk (Kenta), and then left, bringing a few ketchup bottles with him.

The next part of the rampage was heading off to Ryo's Television Tower. Zeo broke some camera lenses and ripped them off their tripods. Then, he graffitied the back of the screen Ryo stood in front of. He wrote: BEWARE! ZEO ZAGGART IS BACK!

Ryo clapped him on the back. "Zeo my boy, you made this day's news totally interesting!" Ryo exclaimed. Then Ryo had his camera men throw Zeo Zaggart out so the remaining in-tact cameras could film Ryo with this breaking news.

Zeo picked himself up and continued on the second part of his rampage. His next stop was Hikaru's Hospital, but it had been barricaded because Hikaru had heeded Ryo's immediate warning and quickly shut the place so Zeo couldn't trash it. So Zeo Zaggart went to Hycuto's Dog Food. When he realized the shop was owned and managed by a dog, Zeo almost fainted. He was scared of the talking dog! Then, Zeo left so as to maintain his sanity and went to Doji's Dojo. The dojo had a bunch of hi-tech (and heavy) equipment.

Zeo Zaggart tried to destroy a treadmill, but could only manage to dent the control panel. Next he detached a punching bag, which crashed to the floor and then fell on top of him, pinning him to the floor. A few minutes later, he managed to unpin himself and left the dojo, whose punching bags really hated him. Zeo went on to Yuki's Yams and squashed yams while Yuki counted his losses.

Zeo decided that place was boring and continued on his rampage to Vridick's Radical Pets. He had but placed his hands on a rack of dog leashes to topple it over when an adorable puppy looked at him. Zeo left the rack and went over to cuddle the loveable puppy. After a few minutes, and several people staring at him creepily, Zeo Zaggart left the pet store, deciding he couldn't bear to be at all mean to the adorable puppy and the owner of this shop.

His next rampage of terror stop was at Benkei's Bath & Beauty. He saw Benkei the owner sobbing as he walked through the store. (Benkei had still not recovered from his severe case of Kyoya withdrawal because Kyoya was still on vacation.) Zeo shrugged because he didn't know anything about Kyoya withdrawal. He had never even _seen _Kyoya. Well, actually he _had _seen Kyoya and Nile back before they had entered the town, which had then been named Bracheoradialius, but he just thought they had been random people.

Okay, so Zeo raced around the store, wreaking havoc as usual. Then Zeo left the store, where Benkei was now wailing for more than one reason. Zeo went back to the main road of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land. He strolled along. Tsubasa's Tank Top Shop had appeared to have recovered from his earlier attack, so he walked in to trash it again. Rose met him at the door with a smile. She shoved him down the steps, and Zeo decided not to return. On he went, wreaking havoc to homes and businesses.

Vroom! Vroom! Vroom! Busujima and his biker gang arrived on the scene of Zeo Zaggart attempting to enter Bao's Bread Bakery.

"Hey! It's that kid we met on the street!" Sora said.

"Yeah," said Reiki.

"It's the one who crashed into the sign," snickered Dan.

The entire biker gang laughed as they zipped by, spewing exhaust in Zeo Zaggart's face. Zeo coughed and then went back to trying to break into the bakery. He was glad the annoying biker gang had gone.

Vroom! Zeo sighed. Apparently they hadn't given up on tormenting him. He looked up and sure enough, there was head biker Busujima with his fellow bikees in tow.

"Hey kid, you didn't uphold your end of the bargain," Busujima told Zeo. "You owe us."

"Huh?" Zeo didn't remember any deal.

"Yeah, you said you would get a makeover in exchange for Busujima taking you into town," added Ryutaro.

"Sssssss," hissed Reji.

"Well, I don't owe you," said Zeo, trying to pretend that the leather-clad bikers hadn't intimidated him.

Bang! Busujima knocked Zeo out and biked him to Tetsuya & Teru's Hair & Nails. The hired beauticians there gave Zeo a complete makeover for free, because the biker gang members were their boyfriends. They all giggled and gossiped while doing Zeo's makeover. When Zeo left (after regaining consciousness), he hardly recognized himself. It took him all night to get the make-up off.

**To dequincy: I have never seen or read Sailor Moon, but my sister has. I talked to her about helping me write it, and she says she would need a plot idea and a genre to get started with. Also, I only write Beyblade Metal Masters (Season 2) and up, so It wouldn't be Metal Fusion. Tell me if this is okay.**

**To all my faithful readers, thanks for reading, and please review! :)**


	10. Kyoya & Nile's Return

**Sorry about not posting yesterday. I was rather busy. Enjoy the chapter!**

_Chapter 10 Kyoya & Nile's Return_

At the airport, Kyoya and Nile met each other in the baggage claim area. "How ironic!" said Nile. "We both returned from our vacations at the same time!"

Kyoya nodded. "I loved the break, but I felt somehow drawn to return."

"Me too," said Nile.

The two friends picked up their baggage and went to the parking structure to get their cars and drive home. Nile stopped in at Hyoma's Hotel and discovered that, much to his surprise, the visitors looking for Zeo Zaggart were still in town. They were not, however, in the hotel at the time. Hyoma told Nile that the guests had gone out early in the morning, around 8:00. It was now noon in Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land.

Meanwhile, Kyoya had already unpacked at his home and headed off to open up the Beyblade Battlegrounds for the first time in over a week. As soon as bladers had seen Kyoya and Nile drive into town, they had begun to queue up outside of the tan pyramid, eager for tough battles. Kyoya opened the door and raced to the top as bladers poured into the Beyblade Battlegrounds.

A few minutes later Nile joined him, ready to get back to work. It didn't take long for the first of the determined challengers to arrive.

* * *

Tyson was wandering around town again with Kenny, Ray, Max, and Hilary. Kai had once more mysteriously disappeared after their group breakfast. "La la la!" sang Tyson happily. "I wonder where Zeo went?"

Ray sighed. He wished he had disappeared along with Kai. "I don't know, Tyson."

"That's why we're looking for him," said Kenny. "Because we don't know where Zeo is."

Hilary sighed. She left them, announcing that she would rather go searching for Kai. Tyson didn't hear, Ray nodded, Kenny shrugged, and Max didn't care.

Hilary found Kai talking to King, and decided to ask him a question. "King, how could you declare yourself a 'king' when the USA is run by a president?"

"King is more of an honorary title," explained King. "Plus, people think it's funny because my name is King."

"Oh." That answer satisfied Hilary. Then she turned to Kai. "You'd better have a good explanation of why you always disappear after breakfast, Kai."  
Kai turned toward Hilary. "Surely you've hung around Tyson long enough to realize that he gets over-excited about everything. I find that _very _annoying."

Hilary nodded. She had noticed. "I understand."

"In other news," said Kai, who had been talking to King long enough to hear this tidbit, "Kyoya and Nile have returned."

Kyoya and Nile. Hilary couldn't remember who Kyoya was, but she knew Nile was the one who had driven them into Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land. "So?" she asked.

Kai patiently explained to her what she had forgotten about their friend Nile. "That means the Beyblade Battlegrounds is open now."

"Oh!" Hilary had finally connected the dots. "So today you especially wanted to leave because you knew that Tyson would get super excited and spaz out about going there."

"Exactly," replied Kai.

* * *

"Oh boy oh boy oh boy!" squealed Tyson. "The Beyblade Battlegrounds have _finally _been opened up! I am _so _going there!"

Max, Ray, and Kenny sighed. "Fine," they answered. If they had said "no," then Tyson would bug them about it _forever_. Then all of them headed over to the Beyblade Battlegrounds.

Once they got there, they saw a huge line winding all the way down the street and around the block. "Really? We have to stand in a line this long?" asked Max in disbelief.

Tyson was looking up and down the line. "I can't wait this long!" he wailed.

The person in front of him turned around. "Suck it up, kid. We _all _have to wait."

Another person looked at them. "Yeah, Kyoya and Nile are super popular, so their business is always booming."

"Tyson?" asked Ray tentatively. "Are you willing to wait in this line?"

"Yes yes! Of course!" exclaimed Tyson. "I must prove that I am the champ!"

Kenny sighed. This would be a _long _afternoon.

* * *

"Really? They're back?" asked Benkei.

Kenta nodded. "I saw them myself."

"K-K-Kyoya!" cried Benkei, who then rushed out of his shop to go and greet his friend.

At the Beyblade Battlegrounds, he got in line behind Tyson and company. Tyson was already getting bored, and wanted to talk to someone, so he talked to Benkei.

"Hey. Why are you here?" asked Tyson.

"Tyson, most people are here to battle," said Kenny.

"I am here to get over my illness," Benkei said.

Tyson recoiled. "Eww... Get away from me! I don't want to be sick too!"

"You can't catch my illness," Benkei reassured Tyson. "I have an noncontagious, severe form of Kyoya withdrawal."

Ray looked at Kenny. "Is there such a thing?"

Benkei answered before Kenny. "It has to be real. I've felt sad and lonely without Kyoya. So I am here to see him!"

Tyson and the others wondered how long Benkei would wait in line.

* * *

Turns out, a very long time. Five hours later, Benkei was still in line, which was seemingly as long as ever. Tyson, Max, Ray, and Kenny had left the line about four hours ago, as had a lot of others when they realized they were wasting their day standing there. But not Benkei. He faithfully stayed in line, keeping his gaze fixed on the top of the pyramid.

An hour after that, after six hours of waiting in line, Benkei finally entered the pyramid. His determination allowed him to make it to the top, where he raced to Kyoya. Needless to say, Kyoya pushed Benkei away, but Benkei's Kyoya withdrawal was gone. He was cured!

Then it came time for the battle, where Benkei chose to fight against Kyoya, and of course, ended up losing. Soon after the battle against Benkei, Kyoya and Nile had to close up the pyramid, because it was around ten o'clock at night, and they wanted to get home. They had already worked past their usual shift because of the large number of challengers lined up.

Nile headed off to his home as Kyoya finished locking and barring the front door. Just as Kyoya left, he turned to look back once more, and saw a dark figure emerge from the shadows. It walked up to the pyramid that is the Beyblade Battlegrounds and launched a bey at it. The bey did no damage and fell to the ground. The figure kicked, screamed, and tore at the pyramid, but id didn't budge. Kyoya, even though it was dark, knew who it was and what it meant: Zeo Zaggart was back.


	11. Shadows & Dark Alleys

**Not wanting to give away the plot of this chapter, my comment for now is just to read and enjoy! I'll comment more at the end.**

_Chapter 11 Shadows & Dark Alleys_

"We have breaking news here, brought to you by the one, the only, Immortal Phoenix!" Ryo told his television audience happily. "Kyoya has reported a recent sighting of Zeo Zaggart at the Beyblade Battlegrounds. Apparently, Zeo was trying to break the pyramid with his own hands! Not to mention his total disregard for the 'Private property do not trespass' sign! If you see this boy, report him to the police immediately."

A picture of Zeo Zaggart popped up along with the words MOST WANTED. Then the film cut back to Ryo, who was now advertizing businesses.

Gingka turned off his TV with a sigh. He wondered if Zeo Zaggart would ever be caught and brought to justice. He had ruined (or tried to ruin) many businesses and been an annoyance to many people. _Why had Zeo even come into town?_ Gingka wondered. After all, it was named Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land.

Well, Gingka had seen him once, and that had been one too many times. Gingka couldn't just stay hidden inside though. He had things to do, people to visit, a job to work. A job! Oh no! Thought Gingka. He had totally forgotten about his chef duties. He had just enough time to get there if he ran, so he raced to his burger restaurant. If he didn't make it on time, Madoka would kill him!

Gingka made it through the door just in time. Madoka hardly noticed he was a millisecond late, and Gingka tried to hide the fact that he was panting from exhaustion. He got to work, setting up burgers just right. He wanted to make sure that each customer was fully satisfied.

Later in the afternoon when there was a lull in the business, Madoka asked Gingka if he would take the trash out while she swept the restaurant.

"Sure!" said Gingka, so he took the trash out the back door into the alley, and whistled happily while he did it. He thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned to look closer, that something vanished.

"Oh, it's you," said a voice behind Gingka.

Gingka spun around to face the speaker, who just so happened to be Zeo Zaggart. "Boo!" said Zeo. Gingka yelped in terror and raced back into his restaurant, slamming the door behind him.

"What's wrong, Gingka?" asked Madoka, who had heard the commotion.

"I-I," Gingka stuttered, pointing toward the door he had slammed shut. "Z-Z-Z..."

Madoka strode over to the door and swung it open. Nothing happened. Zeo Zaggart had mysteriously vanished.

* * *

Dashan was heading back to his donut shop after a short break, when he saw a shadow dart in a dark alley to his left. He looked closer, but didn't see anything. Dashan shrugged and continued on his way to his donut shop. When he got there, he saw Zeo Zaggart dart off the steps of his shop, which almost made Dashan have a heart attack. He managed not to show any signs of his possible heart failure, though. Must be that 4,000 year old secret training.

* * *

Aleksey happened to be walking down a dark alley when he came upon Zeo Zaggart. Of course, since he hadn't been at the second town meeting or seen Zeo's picture on TV, Aleksey had no idea that the boy standing in front of him was the very one that the town was named against. All Aleksey knew was that this kid gave him bad vibes.

"Why aren't you afraid of me?" Zeo demanded. "Why don't you recognize me?"

"I don't know. Should I recognize you?" Aleksey asked.

Now Zeo had no idea that Aleksey hadn't been at the second town meeting or seen him on TV. Zeo didn't even know that the town had _had _a first meeting, let alone a second one. "I guess not," he said, in response to Aleksey's question. "I am Zeo Zaggart, and I am here to destroy the town! Muahahahaha!"

Aleksey blinked. "One: Now I know why you gave me bad vibes. Two: I understand why this town is named against you. Three: Your evil laugh is a failure. And four: I have to run!" Aleksey ran from Zeo, who chased him down the street laughing like the complete maniac he had turned into.

* * *

"Pedal to the metal, boys!" roared Busujima over the noise of his motorcycle gang. It was mid-afternoon, and the biker gang was once again racing through Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land at high speeds.

Sora again failed at a wheely, knocking his bike against Dan's. Dan steadied his bike, which meant Sora got an automatic helping hand. Dan and Sora's bikes left a screeching sound, a black mark, and the smell of burnt rubber behind them on the road, which caught the unfortunate Kenta in a fit of coughing.

Reiki and Reji zoomed ahead of the two, while Dan shouted angrily at Sora. Then, they all caught up with Busujima. Together once more, the members of the biker gang got into formation and roared down the streets of the town, frightening its citizens. They soon ran into (not literally) Zeo Zaggart, who was still hot on Aleksey's trail and still laughing insanely.

"Whoa whoa!" said Reiki.

"Need some help?" Dan asked Aleksey.

"It's Zeo!" exclaimed Sora, which was _so_ obvious. Reji hissed at him, officially creeping Sora out.

Aleksey wanted help, of course, so the biker gang intervened. Busujima cut off Zeo, causing him to trip. Then Dan and Reiki drove in circles around Zeo Zaggart, spewing exhaust at him and causing him to smell the burned rubber of their bike tires. Reji popped wheelies off to the side, while Sora and Ryutaro just zoomed around randomly.

In the meantime, Aleksey took an escape route straight into Tsubasa's Tank Top Shop, which was as busy as usual. Yay for both of them! Yay for the biker gang! Hooray that Zeo Zaggart had been stopped once more! But only momentarily...

**Yes! I wonder if anyone feels bad for Zeo? Oh well, he had it coming for him, what with trying to destroy the entire town and all... Anyways, thanks to all my reviewers. I love reading them all, so keep it up! Hmm... I really need to put some more beyblading in here... What do you think?**

**To dequincy: My sister is currently writing a different fanfic, and she probably won't get around to writing that Sailor Moon one for a bit. Since I have know knowledge of the show or manga, I can't really write without her. Sorry for the wait.**


	12. Shopping Spree

**Slight beyblading in this chapter. I'm planning on a great battle for the next chapter next week, though, so keep reading!**

_Chapter 12 Shopping Spree_

It was a bright, sunny morning in Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land. Tyson was shouting to his friends over breakfast once more, as usual. "Let's go shopping!" he told them loudly.

"Well, I guess it _would _be something new to do," admitted Kenny.

"Hooray!" shouted Tyson, who had scared most of the other diners out of the area by now.

After Tyson had finished his fourths, and everyone else had finished their seconds, they all went out shopping, even Kai. He had decided that Tyson wouldn't be _that _bad to hang out with now that he had gotten over his Beyblade Battlegrounds spazm. The first stop on their shopping spree was Damian's Department Store, which had practically anything and everything from anti-flammable body suits (like the one Gingka had used) to zebra striped pillows.

Tyson took a shopping cart full of items to the check-out counter and the clerk had just finished scanning things when Tyson remembered that (Oh my!) he had no money!

"Kai, can you buy this for me?" asked Tyson in a winy voice.

Kai looked at all of the items on the check-out counter. "Only if you put 99/100ths back," Kai told him.

"What!" exclaimed Tyson. "But I only checked out 100 items! No fair! Why will you only let me get one?"

"Because," Kai told him coolly. "This isn't the only stop on our shopping spree, is it?"

"No," said Tyson. He knew Kai had a good point, but didn't want to admit it. So, Tyson got Kai to buy him one thing out of the 100 items he had originally checked out.

The Bladebreakers and Hilary's next stop was Tsubasa's Tank Top Shop. Tsubasa greeted them at the door. "Welcome. What can I help you with?"

Tyson said, "Can you take me to meet Tsubasa?"

"You're talking to him," said Tsubasa.

"What? But you're not the person on the sign!" said Max.

"That's Kyoya on the sign. I'm in the background," Tsubasa told them all.

"But Kyoya runs the Beyblade Battlegrounds! Why is he on your sign?" asked Hilary.

"Look, I don't appreciate all these prying questions," said Tsubasa in an annoyed voice. "The sign helped my business, and that's that."

"Oh! I get it!" exclaimed Tyson. "You're not as cool as Kyoya."

Unfortunately for Tyson, Rose had heard that. She booted him out the door of the tank top shop. "And don't you come back!" she called after the fleeing Tyson.

Tyson wandered along after being separated from his friends. In a few minutes, he was in front of Zeo's Zoo. He was about to get in line when he remembered that he had no cash on hand, because Kai had paid for his purchase at the department store and kept all the change of Tyson's purchases to himself. So Tyson sighed and sat outside the zoo's gate.

All of a sudden, Tyson saw a familiar face. He got up and came over, picking his way through mobs of people standing around the zoo, which was famous for its diverse animal collections. Tyson got closer and closer; then he was finally within speaking range.

"Hey!" Tyson called out.

A few people in the area looked toward him, including the one he had been looking for. "Tyson," said the guy. "Why are you here?"

"I got kicked out of Tsubasa's Tank Top Shop, remember?"

"Yeah. So now I assume you want to hang out with me," said Kai, who was not at all happy to see Tyson.

"Yay! I get to hang out with Kai!" said Tyson happily.

So Kai reluctantly allowed Tyson to tag along on his zoo visit. It would have been a wonderful visit; if Tyson hadn't been chatting constantly to Kai. Fortunately, all Kai did was nod or say "mhm" or "yeah". He wasn't even paying attention until his subconscious mind heard Tyson say "Zeo Zaggart". Then he snapped back to the present.

"_Where _is Zeo Zaggart?" Kai asked Tyson.

"Here, at the zoo," Tyson told him. "Let's go say hi."

Tyson dragged Kai after him until they caught up with Zeo Zaggart. Zeo was rampaging around the Reptiles & Amphibians building. He had just destroyed the cage of a highly poisonous coral snake, which was now hissing and slithering along the floor. Zeo brandished a stick and was about to break the South American Poison Dart Frog aquarium.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion. "Noooo!" Tyson screamed in slow-mo. He knew he would be too late to stop Zeo; his head hurt from everything being in slow motion. Zeo hauled the stick back, paused, and then began the deadly swing. Try as he might, Tyson couldn't force his body to obey him and get out of slow-mo. He saw everyone screaming in the building; running from the escaped poisonous snake and fleeing from the soon to be escaped poison dart frogs. Tyson couldn't think straight either. Had his brain gone into slow motion too?

"Hua!" came a shout from behind Tyson. It wasn't in slow-mo, either. A blue beyblade came flying at Zeo. It flew past his face, causing his stick to miss hitting the aquarium. Instead, it his Zeo's foot. The slow motion spell had been broken.

Zeo Abyss was called to the scene, and he in turn called a local hazmat team to take care of all the poisonous and deadly animals that were running around the zoo. Tyson had discovered the identity of the mystery blader who had saved the zoo from having to call in another hazmat team to rescue the poison dart frogs safely. He had turned and seen Kai holding his launcher and seen Dranzer return to him. It was great that Kai had saved the day, but Tyson wished _he _had thought of launching Dragoon to confuse Zeo himself.

Back at Hyoma's Hotel, a flock of reporters from Ryo's Television Tower followed Kai around, each one asking for an exclusive interview with the newest hero of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land. Kai declined any comments, so the newsmen didn't have much to work with.

When the gang turned on the TV at night, Ryo's channel was showing footage of Zeo Zaggart breaking into Zeo's Zoo, Enzo's Envelopes, Jack's JArt, Tetsuya & Teru's Hair & Nails, and even OTA Land! What Kai, Tyson, and all the others wondered was when all this would end.

**Thanks for reading, and an extra special thanks to all my reviewers! Keep up the great reviews!**


	13. The Dragon Emperor Strikes Back

**Here it is, the next chapter! Oh, and just so you know, my favorite from the old beyblade series is totally Kai. He has a personality a lot like Kyoya, if you haven't seen the old series. Well, enjoy the chapter!**

_Chapter 13 The Dragon Emperor Strikes Back_

It was your average day in Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land. Except that the town was not living up to its name. That's right; Zeo Zaggart was still in town. And he was doing what he usually did: Destroying things. Those who were not in the direct line of fire, so to say, could follow his activity with live coverage on Ryo TV.

Zeo was not walking today. He was running on a rampage! I guess we could call it... Zeo Zaggart's Rampage Part 3! But you have to admit that isn't _all _that this chapter is about. Anyways, Zeo was rampaging everywhere and anywhere, and hardly anyone was stopping him, so he was having a heyday! As Zeo rampaged around the housing sector of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land, Ryo's reporters got live footage of his destruction.

Hyoma called 911, and the cops and firemen rushed to the scene. They yelled at Zeo Zaggart to get his hands in the air where they could see them. Zeo launched Cerberus at them, and that made the cops and fire-fighters have to forget him and rally to save the forest that Zeo's bey had set on fire. Fortunately, the fire only caused minimal damage to a few blades of grass. (That other sentence was a major overstatement.)

After the fire had been watered down thoroughly, the cops realized that Zeo Zaggart had disappeared, leaving a trail of destruction after him, which the cops were quick to follow. When they caught up with him, Zeo threw bricks at them and their cars, which dented several hoods and roofs, but only shattered one windshield, which was what Zeo had been aiming at. After those incidents, the lazy cops decided to quit chasing the kid and go to Dashan's Donuts. They unanimously agreed that the bladers in town would soon take care of the problem.

The cops (who had indeed gone to Dashan's Donuts) didn't have long to wait for their prediction to come true. A mere five minutes after they left to get their sugar high, Kai stumbled across the scene of Zeo's destruction and soon found Zeo Zaggart himself. (Actually, Kai didn't stumble. He was walking coolly around town when his path crossed Zeo's, and stopped by to check out the property damage.)

"Too bad Tyson isn't here," muttered Kai.

Zeo Zaggart heard him and spun around. When he recognized Kai, he was momentarily shocked and took an involuntary step backwards, tripping on a brick behind him and falling backwards with his arms flailing helplessly.

Kai smiled. A small smile, but for Kai, it was practically like rolling on the floor laugh from Tyson. "Still rampaging around, Zeo?" Kai asked as Zeo picked himself out of the dirt.

"Don't insult me, Kai," spat Zeo. "I've defeated you before, and I can do it again!"

The smile passed on Kai's face once more. Zeo hadn't faced his new Dranzer in battle ever, and Zeo had not faced Kai's Dranzer's new move. "We'll see about that," Kai told Zeo.

Zeo scowled and pulled out his bey. Kai loaded his Dranzer on the launcher. "3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"Let it rip!" they yelled. Cerberus and Dranzer began their street battle. Cerberus took up a defensive position, but as there was no stadium, Dranzer also took up a defensive position a few feet away from Cerberus. The blades sat there spinning and spinning and spinning until Zeo was half bored and half mesmerized and decided to finally attack.

"Cerberus!" yelled Zeo as his blade crashed into Dranzer. Dranzer was knocked back. Cerberus continued to attack, pushing Dranzer further and further down the street.

Zeo laughed. "Had enough yet, Kai?" he taunted.

Kai was completely calm. He slowly gave Dranzer more power, and Zeo realized he was being toyed with. "Cerberus, attack!" Zeo called. His bit-beast emerged from his blade and launched itself toward Kai's Dranzer.

"Dranzer!" called out Kai, finally using a sufficient amount of power. "Blazing Gig!"

Kai's bit-beast also emerged in a blaze of fire and attacked Cerberus in flaming glory. Cerberus held the attack for a few seconds, but then crumbled under the sheer power of Blazing Gig. Cerberus landed at Zeo Zaggart's feet, smoking. Zeo waited for his bey to cool down and then picked it up. This town seemed to hate him. No, this town _did _hate him. It was named after him (in a bad way) and he couldn't win a single bey battle here (he had only ever fought two in the town).

When Zeo looked up from his beyblade, he saw Kai a few feet away with his back turned to him. Kai walked away, leaving Zeo in the dust on the ground.

"Kai!" called a voice to Kai's right. "Are _you _the one responsible for this obnoxious street battle?"

"That's right," said Kai. "But I thought I did a great job of taking care of the fool, Ryuga."

"Huh." Ryuga frowned. "Normally, you both would pay for disturbing the peace, but I'll give you a pass today because I'm feeling generous."

"Really?" asked Zeo hopefully.

"No, not you," Ryuga said. "I was talking to Kai."

"So you're going to battle me?" asked Zeo, who was still scared of the guy who had thrown him 100 yards.

Ryuga didn't answer the question. "Watch and learn, Kai." Ryuga pulled out Ldrago. "Ready your bey, challenger," he told Zeo.

"I'm not challenging you. You're challenging me!" said Zeo, but he still pulled out Cerberus.

"Fine. I'll call you... challengee!" said Ryuga with an evil looking smile. "Ready your bey, challengee!"

Zeo launched Cerberus without the standard countdown, hoping to catch Ryuga by surprise. "Ha!" said Ryuga, giving Ldrago a super strong (unnecessarily strong) launch. Cerberus didn't stand a chance. Ldrago crashed into it in a split second and it flew to pieces. Ryuga laughed as Zeo tried to pick up his beyblade's pieces and then left. Kai had seen the whole thing, and was rather impressed; more so than he let Ryuga see.

Those three weren't the only ones who saw the Dragon Emperor strike back. One of Ryo's TV men had captured that battle and the one before it on live TV. After all, they had been following the destruction live. When Kai returned back to the hotel, Hilary congratulated him on his victory and Tyson slapped him on the back saying "Now I'll have to battle you to prove I'm still worthy of the title 'champ'!"

Kai smiled tolerantly at Tyson, knowing that the person he should wish to challenge was Ryuga.

**Thanks for reading, and please review!**


	14. A Magical Visit

**Aaah! My mind is running wild! I have to write a story for a school project, so this chapter is rather random, having come from my overworked mind. I'll try to get another chapter out soon. Hopefully today?**

_Chapter 14 A Magical Visit_

"Whwhwh!" whistled Gingka as he walked along. He was on his way to Ryuga's Readables to buy a new book. On the way, he was joined by Yu.

"Gingky!" Yu exulted when he found someone fun to be with. "Let me come with you on your fun adventure! Uh... where are we going anyway?"

"We're off on a magical visit to Ryuga's Readables! Come along, Yu!" said Gingka happily.

So now the happy duo of Gingka and Yu headed on their way. Until they met Kenta. "Gingka! Yu! Can I come with you?" he asked them.

"Sure! Come on, Kenta! We're off on a magical visit to Ryuga's Readables!" Gingka told Kenta.

So now the happy three-some went merrily on their way singing "Lalalalala!" Until they met Masamune.

"Where are you all going so happily?" asked a confused Masamune.

Gingka smiled. "Hello Masamune. We're all on our way for a magical visit at Ryuga's Readables! Want to come?"

"Sure!" said Masamune, falling in line behind them and joining in the singing of "Lalalalala!" Then they ran into Tsubasa, who was actually not with Rose for once.

"Hola, Tsubasa!" greeted Yu.

Gingka said, "Want to come with us on a magical journey to Ryuga's Readables?"

Tsubasa hesitated for a second before saying, "Uh... sure." The merry five-some now continued on their way to their destination; until they came across Benkei.

"Hello Benkei!" said Gingka. "Want to join us on our magical trip to Ryuga's Readables?"

"Sure!" said Benkei without hesitation. He cut in line in front of Tsubasa, who was reluctantly trailing along in the back of the line, but joining the other five in singing "Lalalalala!" Until they met up with Kyoya and Nile, who were both on their way to the Beyblade Battlegrounds.

"Hi Kyoya! Hi Nile!" gushed Gingka happily. "Want to come with us on our magical journey to Ryuga's Readables?"

"No thanks," said Kyoya.

"No thanks," said Nile.

"Awww..." groaned everyone, especially Benkei. But they continued on their way (magical visit) to Ryuga's Readables. Until they ran into the door of the shop.

"Oof!" said Gingka, who had run into the door.

"Oof!" said Yu, who had run into Gingka.

"Oof!" said Kenta, who had run into Yu.

"Oof!" said Masamune, who had run into Kenta.

"Oof!" said Benkei, who had run into Masamune.

"Ow!" yelped Tsubasa, who had landed half on Benkei and half on the nail protruding from the door. "What's this?" he asked, pulling a note off the door of Ryuga's Readables (it had been stuck there by the nail).

"Lemme see it!" cried Gingka, ripping the note from Tsubasa's hands. He read it aloud so everyone could hear it. "**Gone training at the volcano. Be back eventually. -Ryuga**."

"Aw man!" said Yu.

"What happened to our magical visit?" asked Kenta.

Masamune scratched his head.

"I should have known this was a fraud!" Tsubasa exclaimed. "There's no such thing as magic!"

"Yes there is," said Gingka dreamily. "Beyblades are magic."

"No, beyblades are science!" argued Tsubasa, launching into a detailed description of the cosmos and the origins of beys, which Gingka had no doubt heard from his annoying father, Ryo, a million bagillion times already.

Gingka had flipped the note over. There was a back. It read: **Gingka! I knew you would flip this note over! Ha ha ha! It can't make me come back any sooner, though. Adios! Sayonara! Goodbye! **

"Aww..." said Gingka with a sigh. "So much for our magical visit, everyone."

Everyone sighed and left. Yu went to Chi & Chao's Chess & Checkers. Kenta went to OTA Land. Masamune went back to his make-up shop, Gingka went back to his burger shop, and Benkei went back to his bath and beauty shop. Tsubasa went back to his tank top shop, where he told Rose all about his very un-magical visit to Ryuga's Readables. The only slightly magical part was when Gingka had flipped the note over and seen a P.S. from Ryuga, who seemed to have read his mind.

* * *

Nile was on his half-hour lunch break while Kyoya held down the fort at the Beyblade Battlegrounds. He had gone to Gingka's Gangly Burgers, where he had heard the news of Ryuga. Nile wondered where Ryuga had gone; after all, there weren't exactly a ton of volcanoes in the vicinity. On his way back to the Beyblade Battlegrounds, Tyson almost ran into Nile (it totally wasn't Nile's fault!).

"Nile!" Tyson exulted happily. "Can you get me to the front of the line at the Beyblade Battlegrounds?"

"No," said Nile, who had forgotten how talkative and annoying that the one hitch-hiker had been.

"What?" asked Tyson. "But you _run _the place. Don't you have any control?"

"He doesn't _run _the line," Kai informed a sad Tyson.

"True, I don't run the line," said Nile.

"See?" said Kenny, who had silently agreed with Kai.

"Now if you don't want to wait for five hours in line, I suggest we get going," Hilary said.

Ray and Max nodded. Then they all left, with Tyson complaining the whole way. Nile wondered what was up with that one kid's (Tyson's) obsession with the Beyblade Battlegrounds. He reasoned that if the kid wanted to battle so badly, he could manage to wait in line, or opt for easy battles at OTA Land.

By the time Nile finished that thought, he had arrived on the premises of the Beyblade Battlegrounds. He headed to the top and let Kyoya take his lunch break. He battled Yu, who refused to go to OTA Land, and rightfully so. Yu was a great opponent to battle against.

After he won, Nile wondered once more about the mysterious hitch-hikers who had shown up looking for Zeo Zaggart just before Zeo had arrived in town.


	15. The Beyblade Battlegrounds

**I realized that I've never truly given you an image of the Beyblade Battlegrounds, what goes on inside, and why hardly anyone makes it all the way to floor 11. Here's the inside scoop, so enjoy!**

_Chapter 15 The Beyblade Battlegrounds_

"People are starting to think we're suspicious," Kai told the others over breakfast.

"What? How are we suspicious?" asked Hilary.

"They think it's not just a coincidence that we came to this town looking for Zeo and he just happened to show up soon after," responded Kai.

"Hmm..." Kenny muttered under his breath.

"I guess I can kind of understand where those people are coming from, but it's purely coincidence that any of this happened at all!" exclaimed Ray.

"So what?" said Tyson. "I don't care what people think about me! As long as I know I'm the champ, then I'm all good!"

Everyone looked at him strangely except for Kai, who was pretending that Tyson didn't exist.

"Well, okay," said Max. "What are we going to do today, Mr. All Good?"

Tyson looked directly at Max. "We're going back to the Beyblade Battlegrounds."

"Ugh!" said Kenny. "Not again!"

"I promise we'll leave if the line is too long," Tyson consoled him.

Kenny sighed. He sure hoped Tyson would keep his word and leave if the line was indeed too long.

* * *

But indeed not; the line was miraculously short. "Hooray!" shouted Tyson with glee. He couldn't wait to battle. Fifteen minutes later, his wish came true. Tyson, Ray, Max, and Kai entered the pyramid. Kenny and Hilary were not allowed to enter, seeing as they weren't bladers. That made them slightly upset; Kenny more-so than Hilary, who really didn't want to be around the spazy, blading-obsessed Tyson.

And blading-obsessed Tyson was. He blazed through the first challenge, as did Kai, Ray, and Max. On the second challenge, the four also did well, winning battles against automated launchers that were set on level "easy". As the four of them climbed the steps to floor three for their third challenge, Tyson said: "This is _so _easy! I wonder if the Beyblade Battlegrounds is over-"

He didn't finish the thought, because Kai clamped his hand over Tyson's big, over-talkative mouth. "Shut up," Kai hissed at him. "You don't want anyone to hear you say that."

Tyson's eyes widened, and he nodded. Kai let go of him, and they caught up with Max and Ray, who were at the top of the stairs. They looked at Kai and Tyson quizzically, but didn't ask any questions.

The third challenge was to defeat ten automatic launchers that were set on "easy". (The last time they had only fought five.) Tyson thought the challenge was rather easy, and he looked around at the other bladers on that floor. Some appeared to be struggling. Ray was finishing his last battle, and Max was on his second last. Kai was...? Tyson didn't see Kai anywhere. Suddenly, a strange feeling crept over him. He slowly turned around.

"Whew," sighed Tyson. He had randomly thought that Kai was standing right behind him, but he wasn't, which meant Kai had gone on without them to the next floor.

A few minutes later, Max was done, so Ray and Tyson followed him up the stairs. The three of them had decided to stick together in this unfamiliar place. As they completed their ascension of the stairs to level four, they saw Kai moving up the stairs on the other side of the room. He was done on that floor already.

"Rats!" said Tyson. "Now we'll never catch up to Kai!"

"Chillax, Tyson," said Max.

"Let's just focus on the battles ahead," advised Ray.

Tyson nodded. He fought his battles and hurried to the next floor, along with Ray and Max. Kai wasn't on the next floor, he had already gone on past that challenge. Tyson's anger silently simmered within him. He didn't want to be shown up by Kai, but also didn't want to leave Ray and Max behind.

Tyson and the others had no trouble completing level four of the pyramid. They had to defeat five auto-launchers set on "normal". Next up, floor five and their fifth challenge: Agility.

"What?" asked Tyson. "Agility isn't..." he trailed off as an automated machine answered.

"On this level both your agility and the agility of your bey will be tested. Please step forward." Tyson obeyed. An obstacle course popped up. Tyson launched Dragoon, and the machine continued. "Take your mark, set, go!" Tyson hesitated slightly, but then ran through the course with Dragoon following him, desperately trying to dodge the obstacles that were either stationary or in motion. A bunch of the moving obstacles knocked Tyson off his feet, making him lose time. Still, he managed to qualify for the next floor.

"Go Ray!" Tyson shouted as his friend raced off into the complicated obstacle course. Ray only got hit by a few obstacles. His time was a lot better than Tyson's had been. Next it was Max's turn.

"Go Max!" Tyson and Ray cheered. Max made his way more slowly than the others before him. He got about the same time as Tyson; Max had been knocked off his feet less, but had gone sufficiently slower. All that mattered was that they had qualified for floor number six.

* * *

"A challenger approaches," Kyoya noted thoughtfully. He and Nile had video access to the different floors of the pyramid, so they could tell when someone was going up to battle them. Kyoya and Nile stood, and a bey stadium was uncovered from the floor. The challenger entered the room.

"Which of us will you battle?" asked Nile.

"You," said their challenger. "Bring it on, Nile."

* * *

"Huff, puff," Tyson was getting out of breath climbing to floor nine. Ray and Max were right behind him. "Only two more floors, guys. Then we battle Nile," Tyson said as he gasped for air. He swore that he had a harder time climbing the stairs than doing any of the challenges.

Actually, the challenges were rather difficult. Tyson was A: a good blader, and B: overly optimistic. This made the challenges seem easy to him, even the one on floor eight, where they had to beat twenty auto-launchers on level "Xtreme". That obstacle had knocked out a decent number of bladers alone.

Ray was wondering why it was so hard to beat the obstacles on one through ten to get to battle Kyoya or Nile. There were still over two dozen bladers with them, and more behind them on their way to the top. So, floor nine. They all wondered what it had in store for them.

On the way up the steps, Tyson overheard one blader talking to another. "I want to battle Kyoya! I think _he's _the strongest of the two. He became the leader of Team Wild Fang just so he could battle against Gingka in the World Championships!"

"Oh yeah?" said the other blader. "I want to battle Nile. No one has ever survived his special move. I want to be the first!"

Then they got to floor nine. Tyson read the sign out loud. "Defeat five of your fellow bladers. This is where the best rise to the top."

Tyson, Ray, and Max split up and defeated five other bladers apiece. They met back up on level ten, which had a similar challenge.

"Battle Royal. Only the winner can rise to the top. If there is no winner (a tie), then no one is permitted past this level. Good luck, and may the best blader win," read Max.

Ray looked around. There was him, Tyson, Max, and three other bladers. Only one of the six of them would be allowed to advance, and Ray wanted to be that one.

The six of them gathered around a stadium and let it rip. Tyson and his Dragoon won. He advanced to floor eleven, while everyone else fell down a trap door that led to a slide that led out of the pyramid. Tyson slowly ascended the last of the stairs; he wanted to be breathing normally for his final, hardest battle.

When Tyson reached the top, he saw that the masters of the pyramid already had a challenger. "Kai," Tyson gasped.

Kai heard Tyson, but stayed focused on his battle against Nile. Finally, it was time for his special move. "Dranzer, Blazing Gig!" called Kai. His Dranzer bit-beast emerged and raced toward Horuseus in flames.

Just before Kai's Dranzer hit Horuseus, Nile called his special move. "Horuseus, Mystic Zone!"

The tower of golden light shot up, and when the blinding light cleared, Kai's Dranzer was out of the stadium. Nile had won. "That was a good battle, Kai," said Nile. "You fought well."

"You fought better," said Kai, who was angry that he hadn't done better.

"My turn! My turn!" squealed Tyson.

Kai sighed and stepped aside for Tyson to take his place at the stadium. "I challenge you!" Tyson said excitedly, pointing at Kyoya. Kyoya smiled and stepped forward, loading Leone on his launcher.

"It's your loss," said Kyoya with a smirk. "3."

"2."

"1."

"Let it rip!" yelled Kyoya and Tyson. Leone and Dragoon entered the stadium which, by Tyson's standards, was enormous! Leone took up residence in the middle of the stadium, as it was a defensive type bey. Dragoon circled, as it was an attack type. They stayed like this for a bit.

Then, Tyson's Dragoon attacked. Leone repelled it easily. "Is that all you've got?" asked Kyoya. "It will take far more than that to defeat me!"

Tyson said, "My Dragoon is awesome!" Which of course, it was not, at least by Kyoya's standards. Dragoon launched another string of barrage attacks, which did no damage at all to Leone. "Aaaaaah!" screamed Tyson. "Keep it up, Dragoon!"

"Tyson! Stop it!" Kai told him. "A normal attack will do nothing!"

"Gotcha," responded Tyson. Kai truly _was _the voice of reason. "Dragoon Twister Attack!" Dragoon's tornadoes rushed at Leone.

"That's a weak move," Kyoya said. "Try this on for size! King Lion Tearing Blast!" Leone's special move easily overpowered Dragoon's twister attack and sent it flying. Dragoon landed at the feet of a stunned Tyson.

"No way!" said Tyson. He picked up Dragoon and left, along with Kai. After they had left, Nile pointed at a screen that showed floor one. Zeo Zaggart was in the Beyblade Battlegrounds.

"Don't worry, he won't make it up here," said Kyoya. "In fact, I have a plan to get rid of him for good."

**I know that the Magical Visit was random, but please review for this chapter! How do you like the Beyblade Battlegrounds?**

**Also, I'm working on wrapping up the story. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be, and I'll be sad when it's over...**

**Kyoya: All good things must come to an end, though.**

**Nile: Ditto.**

**Me: Thanks guys.**


	16. Assorted Tales of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land

**Okay, more random tales of the town! Enjoy!**

_Chapter 16 Assorted Tales of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land_

_Gingka's Tale_

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! "Auugh!" moaned Gingka. He turned off his alarm clock and then fell out of bed when he saw what time it was. "F-f-five thirty?!" he spluttered. "But I _know _I set it for eight!"

Just then, the lights flared to life and Gingka reflexively closed his eyes. "Happy half-birthday!" exclaimed Ryo, walking into his son's room. "Boy, why are you lying on the floor?"

Gingka mumbled a response, but Ryo didn't hear. "Son, now that you're fifteen and a half, you can start to learn how to drive!"

"At five thirty in the morning?" yawned Gingka.

"Yes! It'll be a long ride to the DMV, and we want to get there around opening time so we don't have to wait in line!" Ryo hauled Gingka into the vehicle and shoved some cereal in front of him. "Eat up!"

Gingka sighed. He hated waking up early; especially when it was his annoying dad's fault. Ryo had clearly snuck into the room when Gingka was asleep and changed the time on his alarm. This would be a very long day...

* * *

Three hours later, they arrived at the DMV. It had taken forever because Ryo had taken seemingly the most roundabout way possible. Gingka could have sworn he had seen the Statue of Liberty, but that was in New York... Well anyways, they made it. Gingka got his temporary license and Ryo drove them home. He told Gingka he would start out easy on the streets of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land.

They got back at ten (Ryo had driven relatively straight this time), and Gingka got his first driving attempt. Gingka did well going down the relatively straight road that he lived on, but had trouble with the road that turned and twisted. He accidentally blew through a stop sign, and almost ran over Kenta, who was jay-walking yet again.

After calling an apology out the window, Gingka continued on his way. About an hour after that incident, it was noon. Gingka's dad was so proud of him that he took Gingka to King's Kitchen for a delicious brunch. Gingka was happy too, and he couldn't wait to tell all his friends about his driving experience.

* * *

_Masamune's Tale_

That very same day, Masamune Kadoya awoke with a, what he considered brilliant, idea. "I'm going to go skydiving!" he exclaimed to himself. He packed all his stuff and flagged down a taxi to take him to the airport.

Once there, Masamune put on all his protective gear. First his helmet, then his shin guards, then his elbow and knee protectors and a face mask. Then he put on his backpack with his parachute and an emergency parachute, just in case.

Masamune looked in the mirror and smiled, giving himself a goofy thumbs-up. Next to do; hitch a plane ride. Since chartering a skydiving plane for himself would be _way _too expensive, Masamune decided to sneak aboard a skydiving plane and blend in with the other skydivers on it.

Surprisingly, his plan was successful. He made it aboard and fell and fell, spiraling toward the earth screaming his head off. It was a blast! Masamune pulled his parachute cord, and it poofed out behind him. Masamune smiled. This had been a great idea!

Suddenly, Masamune realized he wasn't slowing down at all. He flipped over onto his back and saw that his parachute had a humongous hole in it.

"OH MY GOSH!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. The wind whipped the words out of his mouth. He pulled the second cord, and his emergency parachute popped out and billowed behind him. This slowed him considerably, so that he had a safe landing: Right on the top of his make-up shop.

"Hoorah!" shouted Masamune triumphantly. The people on the streets below him looked up and shook their heads. Was Masamune always this odd? they wondered. The answer was "yes".

* * *

_Kenta's Tale_

Also on the very same day, Kenta was watching Saturday morning cartoons. He smiled happily at the premier of the newest, supposedly bestest superhero cartoon: _The Adventures of Java-Man_! It was all about a super strong guy who used steel javelins to take down the evil bad guys.

After the show was over, Kenta ran around outside, during which he traversed the streets and almost got run over by Gingka, as was told in the earlier tale. Kenta ran past Toby's Tacos, the B-Pit, and Bao's Bread Bakery. Kenta also ran past Gingka's Gangly Burgers and Ryuga's Readables.

Once he passed that last shop, Kenta did a double-take. "What?" he asked himself. For there on the roof of Ryuga's Readables were several turtles. Kenta looked closer, rubbing his eyes and blinking, but this was no cartoon show; there were indeed turtles on Ryuga's shop's roof! "I can solve this," said Kenta to himself; his head was still full of cartoons, but that would help him in this case.

Kenta went to the one store that sold practically anything: Damian's Department Store. Kenta purchased a javelin and rushed back as quickly as he could to Ryuga's Readables. The turtles were indeed still on the roof. Kenta hefted the javelin above his head and took aim.

CRASH! SHATTER! Kenta didn't have the strength to throw the javelin to the roof, so he had hit a window, which had, of course, shattered.

"Uh oh," muttered Kenta under his breath. He turned to run off and quickly vacate the premises before Ryuga came out and did something terrible to him, like demand he pay for the repairs of the window.

But Kenta was too slow. Ryuga stopped him before he had gone ten feet. "Just what did you think you were doing?" Ryuga demanded.

"I... uh... was trying to get those turtles off your roof," spluttered Kenta.

Ryuga looked up. "Kenta, those are _fake _turtles. I specifically put them up there so that kids like you wouldn't trample them, as you would have if I had put them on the lawn. Plus, Gingka got his temps today, so I didn't want him running them over. He probably already has plans to tear down that fountain..."

Kenta had disappeared. Ryuga didn't care. He sent the bill for the replacement window to Kenta, who quite unwillingly paid for the damage he had caused. Gingka did _not _tear down the statue that day, or the next. Not yet. Or ever? Who knows.

**Okay, so I think I have a bit of explaining to do. My idea for the first tale came from my own personal experiences. My idea for the second tale came from "thin air". (ha ha, very punny) And last but not least, my idea for the random last tale came from a dream that someone I know had. Yeah, it was weird... Well, hope you enjoyed the random tales. Which one was your favorite? Please review!**

**I'm hoping to post the next chapter on this Thursday or Friday, because I have off of school. More time to write! Hooray!**


	17. A Fine Dining Experience

**Sorry about not posting yesterday, but I was busier than I had planned. Hope you enjoy the beginning of the end.**

_Chapter 17 A Fine Dining Experience_

Zeo Abyss was wandering around town. He had taken a day off of work at his zoo, and now it was lunch time. Earlier in the day, he had contacted Masamune and his friends from Team Starbreaker, which were Damian and Toby, because Zeo had always considered Jack to be rather odd. So, Jack had been left out of the invite that Zeo Abyss had extended to Masamune, Toby, and Damian.

Zeo had offered to take his three friends to brunch at King's Kitchen, and they had, of course, accepted. Zeo met Damian outside the doors of the restaurant.

"Hello, Damian," said Zeo politely. "You're here early."

"Yes," said Damian. "I suppose I should congratulate you on stating the obvious."

"Now now; there's no need to be rude," came to voice of Toby, who had just arrived as well. "I want to tell you guys that we're in for a treat."

Damian rolled his eyes. "Of course we are. We're getting our lunch paid for by Zeo."

Zeo silently sighed. The get-together had just begun, and there were already arguments.

"No, no," said Toby. "I mean, it _is _a treat, and it's _brunch_, not lunch, but I heard that King King is cooking today!"

Zeo's eyes lit up. "Great! That means the food will be extra yummy today!"

Even Damian looked happier than earlier, even if it only was slightly happier. Zeo and Toby made idle chit-chat, and Damian sat on a bench outside and didn't join in the conversation. This lasted about fifteen minutes before Masamune finally arrived.

"Oh. You're finally here," said Damian in a bored voice.

"Hola! Comό estás?" Masamune greeted his friends.

"What's up with the Spanish?" asked Zeo.

"No English! No English!" shouted Masamune, causing everyone in his vicinity to stare oddly at him.

"If you can't speak English, you can't order," pointed out Damian dryly.

That pounded some sense into Masamune, who loved food. Plus, he really didn't want to speak Spanish in the first place. "Okay, let's go!" he said, charging into the fancy restaurant.

He didn't even make it past the stained-glass doors. "Masamune," Zeo scolded, holding his crazy friend back by the shirt-collar. "You can't just go charging in and demand a table. You must act formally and politely."

"Just follow our lead," said Toby, opening the doors. Everyone filed in after him. Their waiter led them to a table, and they ordered soon after that.

"Mmmm..." mumbled Masamune through a mouthful of appetizer, which was bread and salad. "Have you noticed that Zeo Zaggart went MIA?"

"Yeah," said Damian, warming to the topic. "I heard he lost at the Beyblade Battlegrounds and hasn't been seen since."

"That was a week ago," Toby added. "Why hasn't he shown his face since then?"

"Maybe he's scared," said Zeo. "He's already been beaten several times by bladers, not to mention the biker gang."

"Or maybe," said Damian in a scary story voice, "He's planning his next attack right now!"

* * *

Zeo Zaggart was indeed planning his next attack, just as he had been for that whole week. This one was to be the pinnacle of his career, and the beginning of the end of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land.

"Yes, yes," Zeo mused quietly. "This, that, that. Perfect!"

Zeo then got up, left the hole he had dug slightly outside of town, and headed to his targeted building. What Zeo didn't know was that he wasn't the only one with a plan...

* * *

"Are you _sure _this plan is going to work?"

"Nile, of course it is. I am the plan master, and my plan will work out for sure. Isn't this, like, the fiftieth time you've asked?"

"Actually, it's only the forty-ninth."

"Well, if you want to get technical-"

"Kyoya, that plan of yours is _way _too technical already!"

"No, you're just getting a headache from trying to read it upside down. The basis of this plan is rather simple. It's just rather long."

"Well, I don't see how this one part here will work out. He'll _never _agree to join us."

"That's where you're wrong. Everyone in town is sick of Zeo Zaggart. Plus, that's toward the end of the plan. We'll all have plenty of time to figure it out before it happens. Remember, all we have to do is stick to the plan."

* * *

Back at King's Kitchen...

"You know what would make this dinner even better?" asked Masamune, who had just finished eating his chicken tenders. (He had demanded food off the kid's menu, even though every patron in the restaurant knew he was over twelve years old. The whole situation had thoroughly embarrassed Zeo and Toby, but Damian appeared to have been gleeful at all of their embarrassment.)

Zeo and Toby looked blankly at Masamune, hoping he would get the memo and wipe that goofy grin off his ketchup-stained face, for Masamune was by no means the world's (or even the town's) cleanest eater.

"Before you answer your own question, let me remind you that this is _brunch_, not dinner. Now, what were you thinking?" asked Damian, who was rather goading Masamune on.

"We should totally have a food fight!" said Masamune excitedly. "It would be-"

"No!" shouted Toby and Zeo at the same time. The classical music being played by a string quartet paused as the musicians and all the other diners looked over at the commotion. Then, the quartet started playing again, and everyone else resumed their own conversation.

"No food fights," whispered Zeo furiously. "This isn't your average fast-food joint!"

"Aww..." sighed Masamune.

All of a sudden, the string quartet stopped playing again, as Zeo, Toby, Damian, and Masamune heard the sound of breaking glass. They all looked toward the sound of the commotion.

There, in the window of King's Kitchen, was Zeo Zaggart. The patrons closest to him screamed in fright and raced away from him. Fortunately no one was hurt by the shards of broken glass.

"King!" yelled Zeo the intruder. "I demand a rematch. NOW!"

King emerged from the kitchen area of the restaurant. He threw down his chef's hat and tore off his white apron. "You want a rematch? I'll give you a battle you'll never forget! Let it rip!"

Variares streaked toward Zeo Zaggart, who launched Cerberus at his arch-enemy. "Goooooo!"

The two beys clashed, and Cerberus was sent flying. Somehow, it managed to right itself and attack again.

"You want to keep this battle going?" asked King in an icy calm voice. "Fine then." His Variares barrage attacked Zeo's Cerberus. The attacks sent Cerberus reeling, but it was obvious to the onlookers that King was toying with Zeo Zaggart.

The one-sided battle continued on for about five minutes before King got bored and said, "It's time to end this thing! Variares, special move, King of Thundersword!"

The battle was over in a strike of lightning and a boom of thunder, which shook the restaurant. Zeo Zaggart was terrified by this show of over-the-top power. He grabbed his blade and scurried out of the restaurant. Everyone that had witnessed the battle cheered happily. They loved their town leader, and were glad that he had defeated Zeo Zaggart, the nemesis of the entire town.

Zeo Zaggart rushed back to his hole in the ground in the pouring rain, which King's special move had brought. On his way, he met the infamous biker gang; led, as always, by Busujima. They all rode circles around Zeo, splashing water from the puddles on the concrete onto the already soaked boy. After the biker gang left, Zeo hid under a tarp in his hole in the ground. He hated losing, but wasn't about to give up yet. No sir!

**Thanks to all my reviewers, especially azure blue espeon and SkylarkOfTheMoon. Keep it up! And since you seemed to like the assorted tales, maybe I'll tack some on to the end of the story. What do you think of that?!**


	18. The Town Meeting & The Plan

**Hope you like this chapter! As you can see from the title, the explaining shall begin!**

_Chapter 18 The Town Meeting & The Plan_

"Welcome all, welcome one!" Ryo said happily. "Or is it vise-versa? Oh well. I am proud to announce on Ryo TV that there will be a town meeting today at noon! Everyone is expected to attend. Immortal Phoenix over and out for a short word from our sponsors, including Damian's Department Store, Chris's Car & Car Repair Shop-"

Click! Dashan didn't need to hear Ryo rambling on a long list of town stores. He had gotten the message and knew it was his job to pass it along. He first visited Chiyun and Chaoxin, who conveniently ran the same business; Chi & Chao's Chess & Checkers.

Chiyun greeted him at the door with a bow. "Dashan. How can I help you?"

"Actually, I think I can help you," Dashan said. "I just wanted to pass along the news of the town meeting today at noon."

"Noon!" exclaimed Chaoxin, who had heard the end of Dashan's sentence. "But it's already ten! That's only two hours!"

"It does seem like short notice," Dashan admitted.

"But King has his ways of telling everyone in time!" exclaimed Mei Mei from behind them all. They turned, and she winked at them. "That's right, I already heard!"

"Figures," muttered Chaoxin.

Mei Mei didn't hear. "I was just coming to tell you guys the news, but it looks like Dashan got here first. Anywho, let's go do something as a team! It's two hours until the meeting, and we haven't done anything together in _forever_!

"You know, that sounds like an excellent idea, Mei Mei," Dashan said. "A+ for the day."

"Hooray! Wait – you're grading us?" Mei Mei asked.

"No, it's just a figure of speech," said Dashan. "Anyways, where do you all want to go?"

"Ryuto's Roller Coasters!" shouted Chiyun, who loved adventure.

"Salhan's Supersoaker Water Park!" called out Chaoxin, who probably wanted to sit on a lounge chair and flirt with the hot girls there.

"Both!" Mei Mei cried, because she couldn't decide between the two of them.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," said Dashan, gesturing for them all to settle down. "We don't have quite enough time for either of those first two options, and we _certainly _don't have enough for both. Why don't we go to Aleksey's Arcade for some fun and games?"

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" was the unanimous reply, so off they all went. They had a lovely time at the arcade, where they met up with the Brazilian team, and Dashan, Chaoxin, Chiyun, Ian, Argo, and Enzo all had a laser tag battle while Selen and Mei Mei played Dance Dance Revolution. Not that they couldn't totally pone the guys; they just felt like having some girl time.

*2 hours later...*

"Welcome one, welcome all!" called out King to the citizens of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land. (He had, unlike Ryo, gotten the greeting in the right order.) "Here we are outside the Beyblade Battlegrounds for our bi-monthly meeting."

Here, King had to pause and wait for the crazy applauding (led by Gingka) to end. "If you'll look in your program, you'll realize that the first category is speeches. Several prominent citizens and one non-prominent citizen have requested that speeches be part of our bi-monthly meetings. In these speeches, citizens will give praise, suggestions, and _constructive criticism_-" Here King glanced pointedly at Gingka, who whispered something to Tsubasa about having written about changing the name of the town _yet again_, even though the name was completely sensible and valid, due to the recent circumstances.

"You can make a random speech even, if you want to," King continued. "First up we have..." Here King consulted a list. "Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith, are you here?"

A man walked up. The very same man who had given King the horribly written questions for the interrogation of Team Excalibur. King and all the other prominent citizens who had been at the interrogation all groaned out loud: None more-so than Julian, Sophie, Wales, and Klaus themselves. That guy had been _so _annoying. Those who had not been at the interrogation were about to get a taste of what they had missed. (Not counting Ryuga beating up Ryo. That had been the highlight of the event.)

"Ahem," Mr. Smith began. He was already off to a terrible start. "I wanted to address some problems in the town that may appear minor, but I think are important issues that need to be fixed."

Somewhere around the part about the slight leak in the town hall roof, King and many other citizens lost interest and began looking for things to amuse them with, due to the length and over all boringness of Mr. Smith's speech. Gingka and Masamune began playing tic-tac-toe in in the dirt with a stick. Yu and Tsubasa played the finger-number game. Kenta searched for interesting looking clouds. King looked around at everyone goofing off and totally not paying attention. He was starting to wonder if this speech thing was such a good idea after all. Maybe he should put more restrictions on it...

Finally, the dull speech was over. The only two people who had paid attention to the whole thing were Ryo, who probably had memorized it to recite in his newscast later, and Ryuga, who most likely didn't care to play games to distract himself and therefore had heard the speech in its entirety.

King stepped up to announce the next speech with a smile. This one was sure to be a great speech! "Next up we have a joint speech by Kyoya and Nile!"

Everyone cheered. They were sure to love this one. After the applause died down, Kyoya started off the speech. "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land: We are here to offer a proposition we are sure you will agree with wholeheartedly."

Nile continued the speech. "Recently, Zeo Zaggart has made himself an irritating nuisance in our town, and Kyoya and I have a plan to get rid of him. All that we need is help and cooperation from all of you."

Everyone applauded thunderously. This was 100, no 1,000, no 1,000,000 times better than the other speech already!

After the applause once more died down, Kyoya spoke again. "The plan in a nutshell is this: As a town, we will all together drive Zeo Zaggart out of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land. We will start tomorrow."

"But how?" asked Gingka, who thought this was a great idea, but was rather confused due to the lack of details.

"Just keep listening," Nile told him. "Then it will all be made clear."

**Aww... I almost feel bad leaving you with that cliff-hanger, but a detailed plan like that takes a lot of hard thinking and slight author-omniscience. I'm working hard to make this plan a good – no, GREAT – one!**


	19. In Which, Stuff Happens

**I wasn't feeling very creative when I came up with the chapter title. Sorry.**

_Chapter 19 In Which, Stuff Happens_

Splash! "Eek! Stupid puddle!" whined Gingka.

"Shhh!" Kenta and Masamune hissed at him.

"This is a top secret mission," whispered Tsubasa.

Yu was silently laughing. "You somersaulted right into that! Hahaha!"

"Shut up, Yu!" hissed Tsubasa angrily. He was, in general, annoyed at his group, which was making more than its allotted share of noise. Gingka kept trying to do "secret agent" moves, in keeping with the theme of The Plan; which was getting rid of Zeo Zaggart.

Masamune had pulled out binoculars, and was looking around intently. He focused in on the green blur that was Zeo Zaggart. He was running around in circles around a street lamp and alternately whacking it with a crowbar and a brick.

As the group closed in on their target, Tsubasa wisely noted that Zeo appeared to be "killing" the lamp by yelling "Die! Die! Die!" Yu almost burst out laughing again, and Gingka narrowly avoided somersaulting into yet another puddle. Masamune was frantically focusing the binoculars as they closed in, Kenta was distractedly following along in the back, and a dark shadow watching them from above silently vanished without even eagle-eyed Tsubasa having noticed its presence.

* * *

Zeo Zaggart had just noticed his enemies' approach. He threw his brick at Gingka, who handily dodged it with a well-timed back-flip. As an added bonus, Masamune chucked his binoculars at the brick, intercepting it in midair, although they broke due to the impact of the brick.

"Hey!" shouted Masamune. "Those were my favorite!"

"All the better," cackled Zeo happily. He couldn't wait to take these guys out. As he launched Cerberus at Gan Gan Galaxy (plus Kenta), Gingka launched Pegasus at the same time Tsubasa launched Eagle. The two beys sped toward their target, and Zeo had reason to worry about fighting two against one until Masamune's Striker also came into the mix, accidentally hitting Pegasus, who dominoed into Eagle.

"Hey! Watch it, Gingka!" snapped Tsubasa, who seemed to have a bad temper that day.

"That wasn't me!" Gingka retorted. "That was Masamune!"

"Watchit, Masamoomoo!" shouted Yu.

"Stay out of this, Yu!" Masamune yelled, even though he was only a few feet away from Yu.

Only Kenta seemed to have nothing to say.

Meanwhile, Zeo Zaggart had pulled back on his attack to watch the escalating verbal war between the members of Gan Gan Galaxy. He was quite interested in how these people, who couldn't even agree with one another, would try to take him out.

"Enough already!" shouted Kenta. Everyone had the audacity to shut up and jerk their heads around to face the formerly silent member of their group. "Are we going to suck it up and work together now? Are we going to band together and take out this threat to our town?" Here, Kenta pointed toward Zeo. "Are we not bladers? Can we not pool our blader spirits together and fight for a common cause? Are you with me?!"

For about a minute, everyone was silent. No one had known that Kenta had had such a stirring, motivational speech inside his tiny head. Then, Yu spoke: "Great speech, Kenta, but an argument is an argument, and this one must be settled. Sorry kiddo." Yu smiled and turned back to Gingka, Masamune, and Tsubasa. "Let's get this party started! Libra, Inferno Blast!"

Kenta clapped his hands over his ears, as did the others. He silently shook his head. These guys were hopeless! Kenta decided to give up and walk away, with the cries of "Diving Crush!" and "Lightning Sword Flash!" still ringing in his ears.

* * *

Recently, Hikaru's younger cousins had come for a visit. While their mother went off on a business trip, Hikaru was stuck babysitting the three of them. They were seven-year-old triplets named Harry, Larry, and Sam, and they were the most obnoxious kids Hikaru knew (and hoped she ever would know). So there Hikaru was, at Salhan's Supersoaking Water Park, watching the boys mess around in the sand pit located near the kiddie pool.

"Oh no!" Hikaru rushed over to the boys. "Harry! Larry! Stop putting sand in Sam's hair! And Sam, stop throwing plastic shovels at Harry and Larry!"

After that little incident, Hikaru went back to reading her _People _magazine. When she looked up in five minutes, the three boys had mysteriously vanished! Of course, this sent Hikaru into hysterics. What would she say to her aunt?! Then, logic calmed her hysterics. The three troublemakers couldn't have gone far; so off she went in search of her cousins.

Sure enough, less than ten minutes later she spotted the boys, who were skulking around the diving well. When they saw Hikaru coming toward them with what they referred to as "the angry face" on, they panicked. Larry knocked over Harry, who fell onto Sam, who splashed into the diving well with his other two brothers making identical splashes into the water after him as well.

Fortunately, the boys were good swimmers, and were able to safely exit the thirteen foot deep diving well without the need for a lifeguard to intervene.

Unfortunately, the boys had been covered (seriously caked) in sand when they had fallen in; which had all washed off into the pool, making the water take on a tan, sandy tinge. Salhan was called to the scene, and he ordered the diving well shut down and emptied for cleaning. Hikaru promptly took the boys home, where she (and later, their mother,) gave them a thorough scolding at their naughtiness.

* * *

As this was occurring, Kenta happened to head toward Salhan's Supersoaking Water Park. Zeo Zaggart was also tagging along behind Kenta, keeping himself carefully hidden from the passerby by dodging from shadow to shadow. By now, they had left the bickering members of Team Gan Gan Galaxy far behind them.

Upon arriving at the water park, Kenta noticed that the diving well was devoid of its usual occupants and appeared to be empty of water a well. Kenta decided to take matters into his own hands and went over to Salhan's office to ask about the situation.

When he got in there, he heard the familiar and annoying voice of Ryo Hagane, Gingka's father who owned his own news station. Ryo was asking Salhan about the "calamity which has befallen your water park."

"Well," Salhan said. "I'm hoping to get the diving well open and running again ASAP. The maintenance crew is out there cleaning up sand debris as we speak."

"What are you going to do to keep this from-" Ryo was cut off by the sudden ringing of a phone.

Salhan answered. "Hello, Salhan of Salhan's Supersoaking Water Park here. How may I help you?"

There was a deathly silence for about a minute, and Salhan first flushed and then paled. "Alright then," he said at last. "Thank you for calling. Goodbye."

"Oh my, oh my!" exclaimed Ryo, who was cackling gleefully on the inside. From Salhan's expression, this looked like it would be a great scoop for his evening newscast. "Who was that? What did they say to you?"

"No comment," said Salhan, briskly shooing the pesky reporter/newscaster/Gingka's father/Ryo out the door of his office. When he saw Kenta standing there awkwardly, he added an extra "Go away; you know" to him.

Kenta scrambled away. Then he looked over his shoulder at the retreating form of Salhan, flinched as the door shut behind him, and then took a quick running start and attempted to jump the fence that closed off the diving well area. His first attempt ended in failure and a face full of the metal fence. On his second try, Kenta leaped off a springy bush, which gave him the lift to fly over the fence; causing him to nearly fall into the drained out diving well. The maintenance crew had suddenly quit for the day (upon orders from Salhan himself), leaving a pile of sand by the side on the bottom of the emptied pool.

Now that he was inside, Kenta wondered for half a second what he should do, but only for half a second, because he heard an "oof" behind him. When he spun around, he saw Zeo Zaggart there.

"Well, well, well; if it isn't the little kid who tried to get his friends to rally against me," Zeo said with a smirk. He slowly advanced, backing Kenta toward the empty pool. Kenta looked down, gulped, and wished he hadn't. It was a looooooong way down.

When Zeo leaped forward, intent on knocking Kenta down into the empty diving well, Kenta threw himself out of the way, grabbing hold of a pool ladder to stabilize himself. Zeo tried too late to stop himself. With an inhuman screech of anger, he toppled over the side and fell on top of the pile of sand, which softened his fall.

"Aha!" laughed Kenta, who then vacated the premises (only one person knows how, to this day), leaving Zeo with quite a bit of time to figure out just how to get himself out of the sandy mess at the bottom of the diving well.

* * *

From high above Zeo, hidden in the shadows of a giant oak tree, the dark figure, who was half hidden in the shadows of the tree, had been watching the entire time. The figure gave the scene one last look before silently vanishing. Zeo never realized he had had a visitor.

**If you're asking _why doesn't this make sense, _just stay tuned for the next chapter! (If you get it, cool. Great thinking ahead (or should I say, behind?). Muahaha!) Thanks for the reviews! Keep it up, I love reading them all!**


	20. Bladebreakers to the Rescue!

**Hey everyone! I just watched the new Beyblade Metal Fury (aka 4D in the Japanese version) episode! I totally know who the "crimson flash" is, because of my previous research which I needed to do in order to write this story's prequel before the English dub came out; but don't worry, I won't ruin the surprise for you! Thanks to all my reviewers, & enjoy this new chapter!**

_Chapter 20 Bladebreakers To The Rescue!_

"Someone? Anyone?" came the voice of Zeo Zaggart approximately fifteen minutes after he had "fallen" into the drained-out diving well. No one answered.

* * *

"An excellent job, Kenta."

"The Plan has gone perfectly so far."

"Gee, thanks!" squealed Kenta into the phone. Then he hung up.

"I have to say, Kyoya, I'm impressed on how smoothly The Plan has gone so far," Nile told his partner in business at the Beyblade Battlegrounds. "How did you know the diving well would be closed today?"

Kyoya twirled a pencil absently in one hand as he reclined in his chair; feet on top of a desk. "Oh, I have my ways, Nile. Ryuga's not the only one who supposedly knows all."

Nile nodded. He and Kyoya were highly regarded for their knowledgeability on many various items and topics. The two of them hadn't become two of the town's most prominent and respected citizens, taking their place with King himself at the top of the town's social pyramid for nothing.

All of a sudden, an alarm went off. Nile checked his e-mail alert quickly, because that alarm meant he had an important message to read.

"What's up?" Kyoya asked him, removing his feet from on top of the desk to turn and face Nile.

"It's an important message from King. He wants us to have dinner with him at his castle tonight. We are to discuss details with him."

"Ah, yes," said Kyoya. "It's always about The Plan."

"Well, The Plan _is _the talk of the town," Nile told him.

"You've got that right," replied Kyoya. "And for the best reason."

* * *

"Hey guys! Did you hear that?" Tyson asked excitedly.

Kenny groaned. "No, Tyson."

"For the fifth time, we haven't heard anything!" Max said.

"_I_ heard something," spoke up Kai. Everyone turned to face him. "It's coming from over there." Kai pointed straight ahead of him.

Tyson, always eager to do things quickly, raced ahead yelling "Last one there is a rotten beyblade!"

"You mean 'rotten egg!'" Kenny called after him, running as quickly as his short and out-of-shape legs could carry him. Ray and Max came along, not wanting Tyson to show them up. (Hilary had gone to hang out with Selen and Mei Mei for the day.)

Kai, who didn't really care about what Tyson thought, trailed along at the back, muttering "There's no such thing as a rotten beyblade; they're plastic. Or metal," he amended, thinking of his battle against Nile. When he caught up to Tyson though, he was actually mildly surprised at what stood at the end of the street.

"A fence!" gasped Kenny.

"And not just any fence," Ray added. "The fence that surrounds Salhan's Supersoaking Water Park!"

"Hooray for your stunning observational skills," Kai said drily, pointing at the giant sign declaring the land beyond the fence to be Salhan's Supersoaking Water Park.

"Gee, thanks," said Ray, not quite catching Kai's drift. "But we still have a problem. Fences can't talk, so who was it that Tyson and Kai heard?"

"Well, it must have been someone _behind_ the fence!" exclaimed Tyson in a rare show of wisdom.

"Okay then," Kenny said. "We just have to climb over the fence and find out who was yelling."

"Already there." Kai had vaulted over the fence and was looking through it at his fellow Bladebreakers.

"Hey guys! Help me over!" Tyson told Kenny, Ray, and Max. Max gave him a lift, and Tyson pulled himself up and over the fence, clumsily landing on his feet and then falling onto his bottom with an "oof!"

Next, Ray boosted Max and Kenny up before vaulting the fence himself, as Kai had done. Once they were all over the fence, the Bladebreakers followed Kai over to where the sound was emanating from: An empty diving well.

"Oh great," Kai muttered under his breath. He knew whose voice that was saying "Help me! Hello?"

Tyson gasped. "Zeo! Who... how did you get down there?"

"I fell." Zeo Zaggart told part of the truth.

"Well, hang in there buddy. We'll get you out somehow," Tyson reassured him. Zeo looked reassured. Out of all the people in Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land, these were seemingly his only friends.

Tyson hunted around for some way to get Zeo out of the diving well. Ray accompanied him. Kenny and Max just hung around the dried-out diving well, gaping down at Zeo, who glared back up at them. Kai just stood around looking cool.

After a few minutes, Tyson found some planks of wood and tossed them down to Zeo. "What am I supposed to do with these?" asked Zeo scornfully.

"Make a ramp!" Tyson told him cheerfully, before hopping back over the fence with the assistance of Ray. Tyson scurried down the streets of town before arriving at Damian's Department Store. Once inside, he went straight to the toys department, grabbed a skateboard, and hurried over to the checkout counter. Grinning mischievously, he pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket and paid for his purchase. Tyson thanked his lucky stars for poker night at Hyoma's Hotel, where he had won the jackpot of the day and therefore been able to pay for the skateboard.

Once Tyson got back to where the other Bladebreakers were, he realized that he didn't have anyone to help him over the fence, so he used the springy bush that Kenta had used earlier. Tyson dropped the skateboard down to Zeo, who had made a rickety ramp. Zeo picked up speed and flew up the ramp and out of the pool.

Once he was out, Zeo brushed himself off (for he was quite sandy), said "Thanks guys" to Tyson and his friends, handed the skateboard back to a stunned Tyson, proceeded to walk nonchalantly toward the fence and crashed into it at a slow walk. Ray, Tyson, Max, and Kenny were all too shocked to say or do anything, but a smile found its way to Kai's face. He found Zeo Zaggart to be quite... _funny _at times. Funny in an odd way.

"Going somewhere?" Kai asked Zeo with that half-smile/smirk still on his face.

Zeo turned bright red. "What?" Just because I crash into a fence while walking doesn't-"

"Going somewhere?" came a new voice, echoing Kai's earlier statement.

"Baah!" yelped Zeo Zaggart.

The newcomers easily hopped the fence; excluding their shortest member, who had a bit of difficulty.

"Um... do we know you guys?" Max asked of the new arrivals.

"Maybe, maybe not," said their leader. "I'm Argo Garcia, of Team Garcia of Brazil. Maybe you heard about our astounding performance in the Beyblade World Championships."

Kenny felt rather awkward saying: "No. Sorry."

While Ian, Selen, and Enzo Garcia introduced themselves, Zeo Zaggart started inching away, hoping that he could disappear without anyone seeing him.

No such luck for Zeo, though. "Hey!" Ian exclaimed when he realized Zaggart was trying to escape. "Stop him!" The Garcias all raced toward Zeo, who abandoned all attempts at subtlety and raced to make his escape over the fence with the Garcias and all the Bladebreakers hot on his heels, each for a different reason. They chased Zeo up-street and down-street, but without success.

"No need to chase," came a voice in front of all the people running down what just so happened to be Otori Street. There, standing in front of Tsubasa's Tank Top Shop was none other than Damian from Team Starbreaker.

Zeo Zaggart was sprinting at top speed when he saw the imposing but short figure of Damian in front of him. He had no time to stop, and therefore ended up sprinting into the open door of Tsubasa's Tank Top Shop, which was closed behind him and locked by Tsubasa Otori himself; followed as always (or at least, almost always,) by Rose.

"Well, that ought to keep him for a while," commented Damian, glancing at the angry form of Zeo Zaggart pounding on the door of Tsubasa's shop. "As for you guys, you'd better come with me," Damian added, gesturing to the Bladebreakers, who followed after him, glancing at each other curiously.

"Glad I made the window on that door with extra-strength industrial glass," Tsubasa commented to Rose, who nodded.

After that rather random yet not random comment, the Garcias also left the area with one last threatening glance at the locked up Zaggart, leaving Tsubasa and Rose standing there alone, _or so they thought... _The shadowy figure who had seen the entire proceedings occur silently disappeared, with no one having noticed anyone being there.

**Oooh! Where is Damian taking the Bladebreakers? How long does Zeo Zaggart stay locked in Tsubasa's Tank Top Shop? Who was the mysterious figure watching them? Stay tuned to find out, and please review!**


	21. There's Nothing Like Arguments &Contests

**Here's the latest installment. Enjoy!**

_Chapter 21 There's Nothing Like Arguments & Contests_

_[an excerpt from Ryuga's journal]_

Dear journal. No, that sounds dumb. Let's start again. I am Ryuga, the Dragon Emperor, a legendary blader, and Gingka's greatest rival. But not really that last one anymore. Gingka knows he's no match for me and my Ldrago Destructor F:S. -Insert my trademark "evil" laugh.- Anyways, I have risen to the top of Beyblade. No opponent I have ever battled recently is my equal, not even Kyoya of the Beyblade Battlegrounds. My point is that I have conquered the world of Beyblade. I believe that it is my destiny to conquer the other world, the world in which beyblading is not the center all the time. I will not do this in the way that Julian Konzern foolishly tried to do so long ago at the Beyblade World Championships. He was not careful, and that Ziggurat guy took it all away from him. Of course, shortly after that, Itook everything away from Ziggurat, sinking his oh so precious Hades City in the sea. But I didn't mean to go off on that tangent. Soon I will head out, actually not too far from here, to begin this quest. There is no need for me to go through any specialized training; beyblading with Ldrago has been all the conditioning I will ever need to undergo; which is why, as always, I will be bringing my bey with me. Just because I have risen to the top doesn't mean anyone else can also rise up to challenge me, even though the battle will always end the same for them: Defeat.

_[-end of excerpt]_

Ryuga closed his journal, replaced it on a bookshelf in his study, and headed out into his main shop area. He found his store in almost perfect, peaceful order. _Almost_, because his cashier was not doing his job; instead, he was chatting it up with his buddy Yuki, who was searching for a long read in the ancient history section of Ryuga's Readables.

Ryuga's formerly somewhat bright mood faded, and it seemed that the store and its outside surroundings grew darker at his anger. Sophie and Wales, who were perusing the modern fiction isle, wisely fled the shop at the first sign of red and purple lightning out the windows. Yuki looked up at the stormy face of the Dragon Emperor with more than a little terror. Fortunately for him, that anger was, as of now, directed at the negligent cashier.

"Kenta!" Ryuga spat the name out of his mouth with distaste. "It seems that just yesterday I hired you upon your promises of utter obedience and caring about each and every customer!"

Kenta gulped. This was not good, not good at all. "Well, um... Ryuga. You _did _just hire me yesterday."

"Exactly." Ryuga gestured toward the line of people ready to check out their purchases. "And look at you, neglecting your duty to the customers and talking it up Shortpants over here! I have two more words for you, Kenta, so listen close. YOU'RE FIRED!" With that, the Dragon Emperor stalked over to the counter and took up the job Kenta had sorely neglected.

A few minutes later, the assemblage of customers in line had been checked out and dispersed. Ryuga closed up the shop for the day, packed what he would need, and drove out of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land, cursing the poorly timed traffic light that he got stopped at before exiting town.

While at the light, Ryuga saw motion out of the corner of his eye and turned to see Gingka waving at him. Now Ryuga had rolled down his windows to try and blow his scorching anger away, so Gingka had also rolled down his window.

"Hey Ryuga!" he called happily as his father, Ryo, who was in the passenger seat frowned; he was annoyed that Gingka was talking to "the arch-enemy", aka Ryuga.

Ryuga looked away in distaste, and was about to roll up his windows when Gingka added something to his previous statement.

"Ryuga, wanna drag race?" Gingka asked his rival in beyblade.

Now normally, Ryuga would have said "no" because he didn't want Gingka to goad him into anything, but this was different: A race. Ryuga always wanted to be first, especially when Gingka was part of the competition, which led Ryuga to say: "Alright. Bring it on, Gingka."

"We'll start when the light turns green!" Gingka excitedly told him.

_No duh_, Ryuga thought. Then, the light turned. Tires squealed as the drivers of both cars slammed on the pedals. Ryuga saw Ryo flipping him off out of the corner of his eye and felt all his anger which had previously evaporated coming back.

The two cars were neck and neck as they raced past the 'Welcome to Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land' sign, but were not even close to maxing out on speed; they were both still accelerating. Fortunately, Kenta was _not _jay-walking today! (Probably because of his recent erm... being fired incident at Ryuga's Readables.) Out of the town the two cars sped, neither one giving an inch. The long, empty highway road that stretched out in front of them was ideal for drag racing. Ryuga let Gingka stay neck and neck with him until they were on their third mile. Then, he really put his foot down hard on the accelerator and zipped away from Gingka yelling "Later, losers!" out the window and looking in his rear-view mirror at Gingka and Ryo's super annoyed expressions. Before long, all he could see along the road, in front and in back, were trees.

* ... Later that night, at King's palace… *

Kyoya and Nile arrived at King's castle with more than a few sheets of paper explaining _what _The Plan was all about and _why _that part had been written in The Plan. King greeted them at the door himself, welcomed them in, and seated them at the long banquet table in the main dining hall.

After King had done that, he seated himself as host at the head of the table, with Kyoya and Nile as his guests of honor. "I must now inform you two that we have some extra quests. They should be arriving any minute."

Just after King had said that, the doorbell rang and King's butler ushered in none other than Damian, Kai, Tyson, Ray, and Max. After them came Tsubasa and Rose, leading an infuriated-looking Zeo Zaggart behind them. Kyoya and Nile had to admit they were just a little surprised, until they looked at The Plan and realized that this was actually recorded.

"Now why...?" Kyoya muttered. Sometimes The Plan surprised even him, one of the authors.

When the new arrivals were seated, the food was brought out. Once everyone had been served their meal, King began. "I brought you all here for certain reasons, but decided we could discuss them all together." King turned to face one of his guests. "Damian, would you start the discussion?"

"Certainly." Damian stood up and began pacing. "I did exactly what The Plan said. I stopped Zeo Zaggart from escaping, and then Tsubasa and Rose locked him in the shop. I realized that it appeared that these guys," here he waved a hand at the Bladebreakers, "were actually _aiding_ the enemy!"

Everyone present frowned at the four "accomplices" of Zeo Zaggart. Then, King spoke. "Do you four have anything to say for yourselves?"

Tyson, who looked absolutely livid, started to rise, but Kai pushed him back down and stood up instead. "I suppose you could say that the four of us _did _help Zeo escape from the drained-out diving well, which I'm sure one of your fellow townspeople put him in."

"I _fell_," interjected Zeo, standing up indignantly.

Kai glared Zeo back down into his chair. He glanced around the table at everybody, who looked back at him. He opened his mouth to speak, but Tyson beat him to it.

"How were _we _supposed to know you guys hated Zeo?"

Kai nearly groaned. What a stupid, idiotic question.

Nile answered it with a laugh. "The name of the town is _Anti_-Zeo Zaggart Land. Surely _that _must have given you at least a bit of a hint."

Tyson looked annoyed at his own stupidity and sat down to try and let Kai talk them out of trouble.

"Well, why did you bring us here and what are we supposed to do?" Kai asked King directly.

King answered. "Because you helped Zeo Zaggart, which is forbidden in our town, we have brought you here for questioning."

"About what?" asked Max. This conversation wasn't making very much sense to him.

"Your motives," answered Nile. "Why did you help him?"

"_I_ for one, hardly helped him at all," responded Kai. "I just told the others that I heard something, which turned out to be Zeo calling for help. And even if I _hadn't _told them what I heard, they would have investigated anyways because Tyson also heard the sound."

That sounded like a reasonable explanation to Nile and the others. "Well then, we'll clear you of all charges," King told him breezily. That took care of one of the five.

"And how about the rest of you? What did you do?" Tsubasa asked Max, Ray, Kenny, and Tyson.

"Kenny and I just stared at Zeo," put in Max. "We didn't do anything but watch."

"You also didn't prevent anything," Kyoya told them pointedly. "But even though you two, and even Kai a bit, committed the sin of omission, you're all cleared because we have no hard evidence or civilian eye witnesses that say anything against you." He figured that doing nothing to prevent was better than doing something to help.

"There are still two that haven't been cleared yet," Rose said.

Tyson spoke up and decided he may as well confess. After all, he couldn't prove he had done nothing; there was too much evidence against him. Hard evidence. The Garcias had seen the whole thing happen before their intervention. Who knew? Maybe he'd get a clear for fessing up. "Well, I've been friends with Zeo ever since we took down his evil father, Dr. Zaggart. I helped Zeo escape the diving well because of that camaraderie." Tyson looked pleased at saying that long last word, and then continued, so as not to heap all the blame on himself. "Ray helped get Zeo out."

Ray nodded. He felt it wouldn't harm to tell the truth.

King looked sadly at them. "I'm afraid you two will have to be escorted out of town, along with Zeo Zaggart."

"What?!" yelped Tyson and Ray.

"You'll be coming with us," said Tsubasa. He and Rose had stood up to escort the three of them out, along with Damian.

Once they left, King said, "You can leave also," to Max and Kenny, who rose to go back to Hyoma's Hotel. After all, they hadn't been told to leave town. Kai rose to follow after them, but was stopped by Kyoya. "Why don't you stay here." The door shut behind Max and Kenny.

"Would you be interested in joining us and helping with The Plan?" Nile asked.


	22. Problems & Walkie Talkies

**I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I hope you love reading it!**

_Chapter 22 Problems & Walkie Talkies_

"Are we... lost?"

"Umm..." came the reply.

"Recalculating," spoke the cool, calm voice of the GPS.

* * *

"Would _I _be interested in joining _you_?" Kai asked Kyoya, Nile, and King.

They nodded.

"Well of course!" Kai told them in a rare show of excitement. He hoped to pick up some great blading tips from all of them along the way. Then the next time he battled, Tyson wouldn't know what had hit him!

"Then let's get started on the next phase of The Plan," said Nile, clapping his hands together the way he did for Horuseus's special move.

No sooner had Nile spoken than the doorbell rang once again. "Come on in!" King called. The guest walked into the room. Kai was the only one surprised to see the new visitor, but he did an excellent job of hiding it from everyone.

"You know what to do," Kyoya told the new guest, who sat down at the table with them.

"Yes," he said, pulling out a map. "I'll patrol the outskirts of town and make sure that Zeo Zaggart doesn't back. Not until the time is right."

"Don't forget that you have help," King told him. He nodded, and King added, "You are welcome to stay for dinner."

Of course, the guest stayed.

* * *

"No sign of anyone over here," called Sophie to Wales. Once again, they had climbed Johannes's yachts, but this time for a completely different reason.

"All clear over here," Wales responded.

"Clear," came Klaus's voice, via Sophie's walkie talkie.

There was an awkward silence. Sophie pressed a button on the walkie talkie and spoke one word into it. "Julian?" There was no response. Sophie tried again. "Julian, come in."

"Should we be worried?" Wales asked, knowing full well that Julian Konzern could take care of himself.

"Nah," came Klaus's voice; this time in person. "He probably can't speak to us right now or hasn't made sure of an all clear."

"Well, I hope he checks in with us soon," Sophie stated. I'll check on the others."

Wales and Klaus stood silent as Sophie checked in on their other fellow guards, or as Masamune called them, keeper-awayers: Zeo Abyss, Toby, Chris, Bao, Lera, Nowaguma, Aleksey, Salhan, Vridick, Demure, and Jack. Jack was an interesting one, for his call had lots of background noise. Sophie could just make out the voice of Chaoxin talking to some ladies as Jack said, "I made that search a work of art, truly beautiful, like my bey, Befall..." Sophie couldn't hear much after that, because Masamune Kadoya's annoying voice broke in shouting "Number one! Number one! Number on- Hey! It's a keeper-awayer! How you doing, Jack? Wanna hang out?" "All clear," Jack croaked into the walkie talkie before abruptly ending his report to hang out with Masamune. Sophie wondered why Masamune would want to hang out with Jack. They had never been exactly "friends", per say. Probably to get some free crayons, she reasoned. Then she turned back to Wales and Klaus.

"Should I try to contact Konzern again?"

"Nah, just wait a bit," said Wales, who didn't want Konzern to be annoyed at them. "You know how he is; he'll probably contact us in his own good time."

* * *

"Man! I can't believe they kicked us out of town," complained a bummed out Tyson. If only he'd lasted another day in town. That night was BINGO night at Hyoma's Hotel, and Tyson wanted to test his luck once more; _and_ stock up on cash.

"Oh, I can understand why _you _got kicked out, Tyson," said Zeo Zaggart. "What I don't get is why Ray got kicked out of town. He hardly helped me at all."

"Maybe because they didn't want me to be all alone," said Tyson in a sad voice.

"Perhaps," Ray added to the conversation. "But it seems to me that everything these people do is for some kind of greater cause."

"That short guy said something about a plan," Zeo Zaggart said suddenly.

"THE Plan," Ray said, adding capital letters.

Zeo rolled his eyes. He couldn't care less... or should he? Zeo decided to make up a mathematical sentence. _If _he figured out what The Plan was, _then _he could counter it. Well, the idea was well worth a try! "Say, could either of you two get back in town?" Zaggart asked Tyson and/or Ray.

"Well, of course I could," Ray said. "But I don't want to. Someone in the town is bound to find me and report me. Then I'll just get kicked out again. _No thank you_!"

"_I'll_ go back," Tyson said cheerfully, still reminiscing on BINGO night at the hotel.

Ray sighed. He argued with Tyson for a bit, but then realized it was futile; Tyson had made up his mind and there would be no changing it. Ray sighed once more as he watched Tyson disappear around the bend in the road, still waving happily at Ray and Zeo. Which reminded Ray that he would _probably_ be stuck with Zaggart. For quite a while.

* * *

"It's been an hour, Wales. Should I try to contact Julian?" Sophie asked the advice of her Cetus partner.

"Yeah, sure," Wales answered.

Sophie pulled out her walkie talkie (well, she put it up to her mouth. She had been nervously holding it the entire hour, expecting Konzern to call at any time). She pressed the button (only after taking a deep breath), and spoke. "It's Sophie, Emperor," she began, using his "glorified" name/title which had ceased to have a point after their failed conquest. "Please answer. What is your status?"

There was a moment of silence. Then the walkie talkie crackled to life, full of static. "¡Hola mí amiga!" came a voice that was _definitely_ not Julian Konzern's. "¡Yo voy a la fiesta! ¿Tú quieres ir?"

Sophie shook her head, thinking she was hearing things wrong. "Um... who is this?"

"¡Soy Masamune! ¿Qué tal?" asked the over-hyper Masamune, who was once again showing off his newly learned Spanish (or should I say Español?).

Wales leaned in and took the walkie talkie away from Sophie so he could add his own thoughts to the conversation. "Masamune," he said sternly. "Get off the line. Konzern may be trying to get through. And who let _you _have a walkie talkie? You are unauthorized to have one!"

"Jack loaned it to me!" Masamune told him excitedly, dropping the Spanish act (probably because he didn't know how to say "loaned" in Spanish.) "So, what were you-"

"Hello, fellow guards," came the... er... flamboyant voice of Jack. "Sorry about that Kadoya kid. He just bugged me and bugged me until I let him talk on the walkie talkie. Yeah, that's what's up. Still all clear. Over and art."

Wales sighed, as did Sophie. What a cheesy way to hang up! Suddenly, the walkie talkie buzzed to life once more. "It's Klaus, guys. I just spotted that Tyson kid, the one who was just banned from town, you know. What should I do? He's running my way!"

Sophie and Wales didn't technically have the authority to give such orders. "I'll just tell him to ask King, or someone else. The head guard, what's his name? The one with the white and red hair?" Sophie couldn't come up with the name.

Wales was about to answer, but was cut off by a familiar voice emanating from the walkie talkie. "I heard what Klaus said. King says to let Tyson come back into town. He just had to leave because, well, he had to be punished somehow. Oh, and his friend Ray is allowed back as well. The only one banned is Zaggart."

Sophie and Wales bowed respectfully to the walkie talkie. Klaus said, "Thank you Julian, Emperor."

"Happy to be of assistance," Julian Konzern said.

"Emperor, where were you when we asked for you earlier?" Wales asked.

Once more there was a silence. This one was awkward. "Er... I was... at King's Kitchen," Konzern admitted.

"Oh," said Sophie.

"Well," Wales said, "I'm glad to know you got in touch with King King."

"Yeah, me too," Julian said with a faint note of relief in his voice. He had indeed gone to King's Kitchen; for a fancy brunch! By no means had he forgotten guard duty, he merely thought it beneath him. There were plenty of others to cover for him. By no means would he tell Sophie, Wales, Klaus, or anyone else this, though, even though a few may agree with him.

* * *

"Well, I'll admit it, we're lost."

"Recalculating."

"Stupid device!"


	23. Nile's Advice

_Chapter 23 Nile's Advice_

Madoka was making morning preparations in Gingka's Gangly Burgers when she realized that Gingka _still _hadn't shown up. Come to think of it, he hadn't been there the day before either. Madoka wondered for a bit if he had once again gone crazy on an "hour off" or gone somewhere and forgotten why he was there.

The door to the burger joint opened with a 'ding' and in walked Kenta. "Hi Madoka. Is Gingka around?"

"As a matter of fact, he isn't," Madoka told him. "I haven't seen Gingka since the day before yesterday."

"I haven't either," Kenta replied. "Ah, too bad." Kenta turned to leave, but Madoka fired another question at him.

"Why did you want to see Gingka?"

"I kinda wanted him to work out a problem for me," said Kenta. "You see, I got fired a yesterday."

"Huh?" Madoka was confused. "How could you get fired from your own business? You're the owner!"

"Yeah, well even though selling mustard as Nile suggested has brought me twice as many customers, I'm still not making a lot of money," Kenta said sadly.

Madoka rolled her eyes. "Kenta, you can't expect to make as much as other businesses. You're just not popular enough."

Kenta's eyes widened. "What? But I _am_ popular."

"Well, um... not exactly," Madoka told him.

The door opened and in walked Nile. "It's no use arguing with him, Madoka. Look kid," he turned to Kenta, "if you _really_ want to spark your business, sell all the fixings."

"Fixings?" Kenta was confused.

"Yes," said Nile, speaking slowly and clearly now so that he wouldn't have to waste his breath repeating his advice half a dozen times to Kenta. "All you have to do is sell relish, hot dogs and hamburgers, their respective buns, and maybe even portable grills." Seeing the hopeful look on Kenta's face, he added, "No, I _won't_ let you put my picture on your store."

As Kenta gleefully left to obey his hero, Nile muttered, "I don't support you _that_ much," under his breath.

Nile turned to leave when Madoka said, "Nile, you wouldn't happen to know where Gingka is, would you? I haven't seen him in a few days."

Nile turned and looked at her over his shoulder. "Afraid not," he said. "I have a feeling Gingka himself doesn't know where he is," Nile added cryptically. Then he left, leaving Madoka to wonder at how he knew this. And how he knew that she had been arguing with Kenta.

* * *

"Welcome to the La Quinta. How may I help you?" the kindly clerk asked the two lost travelers.

"Where are we?" asked the first one.

The clerk looked confused, but answered, "Nashville."

"What?! As in Nashville, Tennessee?"

"Um... yeah. Where else?" asked the thoroughly confused clerk.

"Dad, I know we were lost, but not _that_ lost!" exclaimed Gingka.

Ryo looked equally confused and stated the obvious. "We went off track."

"WAY off track," muttered Gingka, who wasn't really at fault, even though he had been driving. All he had done was follow Ryo's instructions. After all, he was a new driver.

"Well, we'll stay here for the night," Ryo decided. "One room, please," he told the clerk, who booked them for that night.

Funny how Nile was exactly right...

* * *

On his way back into Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land, Tyson was surprised that no one even attempted to stop him from re-entering. "This was way easier than I thought!" Tyson said to himself. "At this rate, I _will_ make it to the hotel in time for BINGO night! Yeah, yeah, that's a plan!"

Fortunately for him, no one was there to hear him talking rather oddly to himself. He went under the sign, turned to look behind himself once more, couldn't see Ray or Zeo Zaggart, but waved once again, just for the fun of it. His first stop was, of course, at Hyoma's Hotel, where he hoped to tell Max and Kenny (and Kai) about his successful trip back into town.

At Hyoma's Hotel, he raced up to Kenny and Max's room, but didn't find them there, so he checked on Kai, who had his own room, but Kai wasn't there either. So Tyson knocked on Hilary's door. She answered, but didn't look at all surprised to see Tyson at all.

"What do you want?" she asked, somewhat irritated.

"Aren't you surprised to see me?" Tyson asked her.

"Umm... no. Am I supposed to be?"

"Well, I _did_ just get kicked out of town," Tyson replied.

"Oh. I hadn't even heard." Hilary didn't watch much Ryo TV.

"Well, I'm back!" And with that, he rushed out to find his other friends, leaving an annoyed Hilary to close the door behind him.

* * *

"So, what are we going to start with?" Kai asked The Plan Masters and King.

"Planning," Kyoya told him. "The second phase won't start for at least a week, so all we need to do is plan and train."

"Train..." Kai mulled that over in his mind. "So I take it we'll be spending quite a bit of time at the Beyblade Battlegrounds."

"Correct," King confirmed. "But that's not the only training we'll need. I think we'll need to do a little training of the mind as well."

"Not a bad idea," Nile said. "Who knows if Zeo Zaggart will actually come up with a plan that is actually smart for once."

"I wouldn't put it past him," Kai said. "I don't think he's as dumb as he lets on."

* * *

Zeo Zaggart was indeed not dumb. Well, just not as dumb as he had been earlier. Ray's suspicions were wrong; Zaggart hadn't stuck with him for a while. Instead, Zeo had high-tailed it out of town and taken a short-cut through the woods to the nearest airport. Just as Kyoya and Nile had a Plan, he also had a plan. At least, he was beginning to form one...

* * *

"Max? Kenny?" Tyson called out to his friends. "Max? Kenny? Where are you?" No answer. The streets of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land were empty; devoid of any pedestrians. Usually the streets were not like this at all. Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land was always full of friendly, talkative people, so this emptiness was quite unusual even for Tyson, a visitor who had not been in town very long. To make matters worse, the sky was dark and ominous looking.

"Max, where are you?" Tyson called out, his loud voice echoing through the deserted streets. "Kenny?" There was only silence. "Kai?" Tyson called desperately.

"What do you want, Tyson?"

Tyson whirled around and found himself looking straight at Kai, who had somehow gotten behind him.

"Whoa! I didn't know you were behind me, Kai. What's up? Where is everyone? Why are all the streets deserted? How did you get behind me? What is-"

Kai held up a hand to stop Tyson's deluge of questions, which ended immediately. "Just because you're allowed back in town doesn't mean you can go around being nutty all the time like you usually are."

Tyson looked slightly abashed.

Kai continued; "And there's a simple reason no one is outside." Thunder crashed as lightning flashed suddenly overhead. Tyson involuntary flinched as the storm began. "There's a thunderstorm," Kai finished, just to complete his point. Then he headed off back to Hyoma's Hotel, with Tyson trailing dismally behind him.


	24. Rainy Day Stories from Anti-Zeo Zaggart

**Okay, so here's the scoop. This chapter is going to be like the Tales of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land chapter, but longer, so I'm going to post it one section at a time, plus the short prologue in the beginning. Enjoy!**

_Chapter 24 Rainy Day Stories From Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land_

_"They have strange beyblades. Much stronger than mine."_

_"Describe them to me; and be thorough. Draw pictures if you must."_

_"Yes, sir!"_

* * *

_The Great Storm_

BOOM! The entire room shook. CRASH! The windows rattled. FLASH! Blinding lightning flooded the bedroom, seeking out every dark shadow and corner and filling it with light; even managing to pierce through the thick blankets on the bed and through the eyelids of the bed's owner.

"Uuugh!" he moaned, looking at his clock, which read 3:00 am. "Stupid thunderstorm," he muttered, getting out of bed and putting on some warm slippers that resembled eagle heads. Tsubasa Otori couldn't sleep during the obnoxiously loud thunderstorm that had suddenly taken its course straight over Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land, leaving all the inhabitants indoors since last night. (Tyson had indeed made it to Hyoma's Hotel in time for BINGO night, but had not hit the jackpot as he had on poker night. Well, they say lighting doesn't strike twice...)

FLASH! CRASH! Tsubasa flinched. Maybe the lightning saying was wrong. Tsubasa headed down his stairs to his shop, which was located conveniently under his living quarters. Tsubasa's Tank Top Shop looked grim and eerie to its owner. Shadows made the Tsubasa posters that advertized his merchandise look dark and creepy, reminding Tsubasa of the time he had been under the control of the dark power. Tsubasa shuddered and searched for something better to look at.

Tsubasa headed over to the window and looked out at the ominous thunderclouds that loomed overhead, pouring their rain down onto the earth below. All was dark, until a cloud moved just a tiny bit to the right. A point of light from one star shone brightly through the night and pouring rain. Suddenly, two more stars also shone their light down through the night and seemed to be pointing their gaze directly through Tsubasa's window. He turned, half expecting someone of great importance to be behind him, but the shop was empty of anyone but Tsubasa himself.

Tsubasa shrugged his shoulders and went back up to his bedroom, leaving the downstairs to be gleamed on by the three stars, which seamed to particularly shine on one of the posters Kyoya had given Tsubasa of himself, in hopes of helping the tank top shop gain popularity.

After a few minutes of tossing and turning, Tsubasa decided rather glumly that he wouldn't be able to sleep with all that – BOOM – thunder and – FLASH – lightning, so he decided to think of something fun to do the next day around his house and store. That was when he got a brilliant idea.

* * *

"Perfect!" Tsubasa declared that day at noon. He picked up his phone and called the first person on his list.

Bring, bring. Bring, bring. Br- "Hello?" came the voice on the other end.

"Hi Yu, it's Tsubasa. Come over and we'll have some fun. I'm also calling some others, so it'll be like a small party."

"Oh goody!" exclaimed Yu, hanging up so he could come over immediately, even though it was still pouring rain.

Next, Tsubasa phoned (almost reluctantly,) Masamune Kadoya. "Hi Masamune," he said (Masamune had picked up the phone half-way through the first ring). "I'm having a small party. Come on over; you're invited."

"Gracias, Señor Tsubasa. Yo estaré allí." Masamune then hung up.

Tsubasa, who had minored in Spanish so that he could be of further assistance to the WBBA as a secret agent, knew that Masamune would be there at his party.

After that, he called Chiyun, Chaoxin, Mei Mei, and Dashan from Team Wang Hu Zhong, who were good friends of Gan Gan Galaxy. Last on his list was one last person: Gingka Hagane. Gingka didn't answer the phone, so Tsubasa left a message, assuming Gingka was just out for a bit. He had other things to think about, like answering the door for the first of his guests, Yu, who came in and skipped around happily as Dashan, Chaoxin, Chiyun, and Mei Mei all arrived as well. Now the only one who hadn't arrived was Masamune, who had probably dawdled on the way over, Tsubasa reasoned. And Masamune _did_ live the farthest away from Tsubasa's Tank Top Shop.

"Well, what are we going to do first?" Yu asked Tsubasa.

"We have choices." Tsubasa then listed them; "Ping-pong, assorted Wii and Xbox games, a deck of cards,-"

"Cards! Let's play Go Fish!" Yu said excitedly.

"I wanna play War!" Mei Mei announced loudly.

Chiyun, Chaoxin, and Dashan didn't care. Neither did Tsubasa. "Play rock paper scissors. Winner chooses the game," Chaoxin suggested.

Yu and Mei Mei played. Mei Mei won. "I choose Go Fish!" This shocked the others, but Mei Mei had changed her mind from earlier. They all played Go Fish.

*****...10 minutes later...*

"Chiyun, do you have a jack of hearts?" Yu asked.

"Go fish!" was the reply.

"Yu, do you have a jack of hearts?" Dashan asked, employing a rather smart strategy to the game.

"Yes," Yu said sulkily, handing one over.

"Go again, Dashan," Tsubasa told him.

"Okay. Tsubasa, do you-" Dashan was cut off by the doorbell ringing. Tsubasa ran over to get it and was greeted by Masamune, who stepped inside, followed by Zeo Abyss, Toby, Kyoya, and Nile.

"Masamune!" Tsubasa exclaimed, wondering why he had brought people who hadn't been invited by the host, but not wanting to turn anyone away. Tsubasa had to admit that he was surprised at the appearance of Kyoya and Nile.

Nile, noticing the way Tsubasa was looking at him said, "What? Kyoya and I aren't allowed to ever have a bit of fun?" Kyoya nodded in agreement. Once in a while a party was fun. He just didn't want to overdose on fun. It could be toxic; he could turn into a Gingka!

Tsubasa stepped back, let the extra guests in, and shut the door behind them. The game of Go Fish was ended, as Dashan was winning by a lot and he was the only one who voted to keep playing.

Tsubasa decided that now was the time for a ping-pong tournament, so he had everyone assemble in his basement and then announced it to them.

"But there's an odd number," Chaoxin pointed out. "Teams won't be equal."

Tsubasa conceded that he had a good point and was wondering if they should do something else instead when Gingka walked into the basement, completely catching everyone by surprise.

"Gingka! Don't you know it's proper to knock before entering?" Kyoya told him.

"Yeah," said Gingka, looking completely unabashed. "But Tsubasa's my bestie, and besties let each other into each others houses. You got a problem with that?"

Actually, Tsubasa did, but he told that to Gingka in private, so as not to embarrass him in front of those assembled around the ping-pong table in the basement. "Well, the teams will be even now," Tsubasa said. Everybody paired up as Tsubasa drew up the tournament brackets.

"The rules will be that the ball has to land on the table to count. Games will go up to 21. After the prelims, each winning team and losing team will play each of the others on their side of the bracket. There will be a two and a half minute warm up allowed for each team. First up is me and Yu against, um... Kyoya and Nile."

"Good luck Tsubasa!" shouted Gingka.

"You'll need it," muttered Kyoya. He and Nile made for a stellar team at anything; beyblade to ping-pong. They took the first warm up session and then commenced to play after Tsubasa and Yu warmed up. Kyoya and Nile played very carefully, always landing the ping-pong ball in just the right spot. Tsubasa played well, watching the ball like an eagle. Yu was a rather quick and excitable player, sometimes hitting hard, sometimes soft. He was quite hard to predict.

At the end of the game, Kyoya and Nile bested their opponents and moved toward the championship round. The next match up was Chaoxin and Mei Mei vs. Zeo Abyss and Toby. The match ended 19-21, with Zeo and Toby barely pulling out the victory.

Next up was the last round of the preliminaries, featuring team Dashan and Chiyun vs. team Gingka and Masamune.

"You'd better not mess this up for me, Gingka," Masamune declared, pointing a finger at his partner. "I'm #1 in ping-pong. Never lost a game in my life!"

Gingka was duly impressed. What Masamune had failed to mention was that he had only ever played ping-pong once before in his life, and it had been against his seven-year-old cousin at their last family Christmas party. "I won't hold you back, Masamune," Gingka replied. "Bring it on, Dashan and Chiyun!"

Dashan and his partner faced off against their opponents. "At Beylin Temple, we too are undefeated in ping-pong!" Chiyun said proudly. Unlike Masamune, he and Dashan had been in at least 50 ping-pong matches back in China.

As the match got started, Dashan and Chiyun had an interesting way of hitting the ball; by holding their paddles vertically instead of horizontally. It reminded Gingka of their solid iron wall technique in beyblading. "Heeyah!" Chiyun hit the ball down the middle of the table. Gingka and Masamune swung at it like they were hitting a baseball. The ball rocketed to the other side of the table with the force of both of their blows. Dashan and Chiyun ducked as it flew over them.

"Out of bounds!" called Yu, who was still excited.

"Point goes to Dashan and Chiyun," Tsubasa said, much more calmly than Yu.

Masamune and Gingka glared at each other. Then Dashan served. Gingka hit it back to him. He and Gingka had a huge face off until Gingka hit to Chiyun, who hit to Masamune. This volley went on until another line drive came straight down the middle toward Gingka and Masamune.

"I'VE GOT IT!" they both screamed at the same time, swinging their paddles and ending up missing the ball and whacking each other in the face. Their opponents looked quite shocked at this, as did most of the bystanders. Kyoya and Nile tried to hide their snickers, as it was quite unlike them to find something hilarious.

After that little incident, Gingka and Masamune's teamwork improved greatly, given the fact that neither one wanted another paddle to the face moment. Still, it was too little too late. They couldn't catch up to their Wang Hu Zhong opponents and lost the game. Tsubasa announced that the consolation bracket would go before the championship bracket, so each of the three loosing teams played each other. The winner was Chaoxin and Mei Mei. Second place was Tsubasa and Yu, and third place was the team that didn't act like a team: Masamune and Gingka.

The championship round was filled with hard-fought wins and upsetting defeats. The final ping-pong game was between Dashan & Chiyun and Kyoya & Nile. Both teams had bested the Zeo/Toby team and were trying to win it all. The championship final was hard-fought for sure. Both teams pulled out all their tricks. Dashan would hit the ball really hard and make it go off the table at a different angle every time. Kyoya and Nile did the same, as did Chiyun. What occurred was both teams flying all over the basement to get the rapidly moving ping-pong ball.

Picture the most fierce ping-pong game and amp it up 20 times. That was what it was like. The highlight was when Nile did a somersault in the air and hit the ball back to the other side. Yu applauded thunderously.

At the end of the game, the Kyoya/Nile team won, but only 21-18. It was quite the exciting game. After that, the guests left Tsubasa's Tank Top Shop and went back home; all except Yu. He hung around with Tsubasa and went to Bao's Bread Bakery with him for dinner. It had been a simply splendid party.

* * *

**This just happens to be one of those sections where I mention practically all the characters there are (at least, all the ones I can think of). So, enjoy and please review! :)**

_Hycuto Takes A Walk_

Hycuto the dog looked out the window of his shop; Hycuto's Dog Food. The thunderstorm had let up, and the sun was shining in the blue sky, but Hycuto could see there were more storms on the horizon. He figured he'd better take a walk before more storms came his way, so out he went.

Hycuto hadn't gone far before he ran into the usually lazy po-po of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land. "Ahem." Policeman #1 cleared his throat and grabbed Hycuto by his collar. "This is an unauthorized dog," he told his fellow policeman.

"What?!" Hycuto was outraged. "I own my own business! I'm a prominent citizen!"

The policemen were both surprised that a talking dog stood in front of them, but tried not to show it. "We'll have to give you a ticket for walking on the streets without a leash on..." Policeman #2 told Hycuto, who was _very_ annoyed. The police ended up dropping Hycuto off at Hyoma's Hotel, where Hycuto convinced Hyoma to take him on a walk.

Once they had paid the measly ticked (fines for dog-walking were rather low in the town,) and gotten outside, Hyoma asked Hycuto where he wanted to go. "I would like to go to King's castle first," Hycuto told him. He was planning to petition King King. The streets of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land were crowded with people who also wanted to get out and about while the nice weather lasted.

Hycuto began yapping at people who almost stepped on him and thanking those who didn't. One of the people Hycuto thanked just so happened to be Kai, who was on his way to the Beyblade Battlegrounds for more training with Kyoya, Nile, and King. Kai hardly even got surprised by anything, but it appeared that Hycuto the talking dog was one of those few exceptions. The next considerate person was Hikaru, who was out for the fresh air as well. Of course, she knew that Hycuto could talk, and wasn't very surprised. But the people around her were.

Then Hycuto and Hyoma saw Ian, Argo, Selen, and Enzo Garcia. "Hello," Hycuto greeted them politely.

"Huh?" Did you say something, Hyoma?" Ian asked.

"Uh, no," Hyoma returned.

"Then who said hello?" Selen asked.

"That was me," Hycuto said.

Enzo took a step back. "Whoa! Your dog talks?"

"Of course I talk!" snapped Hycuto.

Enzo looked too taken aback to speak, so Hycuto padded on, dragging Hyoma behind him. By the time they reached King's castle, Hyoma was out of breath and so was Hycuto, though he wouldn't admit it. On their way, they had also seen Tetsuya, Teru, Madoka, Klaus, Benkei, and Tobio (AKA: Captain Capri).

"Go on. Ring the bell," Hycuto told Hyoma. Hyoma did.

King's butler answered. "Good day, sir. What do you need?"

"Actually, _I_ would like to talk to King," came the voice of Hycuto down by their feet.

King's butler tried not to look as astonished as he felt, and said, "King isn't around right now. Would you like to stay or should I take a message for him?"

"We'll stay," Hycuto said, walking in and making himself quite at home by jumping up onto one of the plush couches in the parlor. Hyoma sat awkwardly next to him, and together they waited for King to come back.

*****...15 minutes later...*****

"And that's the story of how I met King and came to work for him." King's butler had just told Hyoma his life's story.

"How much longer will we be waiting?" Hycuto asked. He hadn't been at all interested in the talk between Hyoma and the butler.

"Well don't ask me," King's butler said. He wasn't in charge of King at all.

*****...Only 5 minutes later...*****

"Oh, I give up!" barked Hycuto, leaping off the plush couch and stumbling on the floor before regaining his footing. He had a _very _short attention span. Than again, he _was _a dog. Hyoma apologized profusely to King's butler, but was dragged out the door by an overly annoyed Hycuto. They never left a message.

"Where are we going now?" Hyoma asked curiously.

"Somewhere fun that allows dogs," Hycuto said sharply. He led Hyoma to Aleksey's Arcade, where they played video games to their hearts' content. After a half hour, Hycuto decided to leave, and therefore dragged Hyoma out as well.

"Hey Chris, hi Bao," Hycuto greeted two of the town's prominent citizens.

Chris waved and headed on his way, but Bao stopped and did a double-take. "Did your dog just talk?" he asked Hyoma curiously.

"I am _not_ his dog!" said Hycuto indignantly. "He's my human!"

Bao smiled at Hyoma. "That's a nice bit of ventriloquy, my friend. How do you get your dog to move its mouth when you talk?"

"He – I don't move my mouth. I'm actually talking!" shouted Hycuto. Hyoma was at a loss for words.

Bao just waved the comment aside. "Sure, sure. Great job; you almost had me fooled. Maybe you should enter a ventriloquy contest or something."

"Maybe we should," said Hyoma, looking at Hycuto, who said "No!"

Bao laughed and walked away. Now that whole conversation had made Hycuto rather upset, so he ducked into the first shop that crossed his path: Jack's JArt. Hyoma got dragged in after the dog and almost crashed into a giant painting of Jack's bey, Befall, before righting himself and regaining his balance.

By then, Hycuto had taken an interest in a piece of art that featured a dog. It was a beautiful mosaic, and Hycuto was picturing just how nice it would look hanging on a wall in his shop.

"How much does it cost?" he asked Hyoma curiously.

Hyoma, who was much taller than Hycuto, looked around the wall and surrounding area for a price tag, but was unsuccessful.

Just then, Jack walked into the shop through a back door. "How are you two enjoying my wonderful works of art?" he asked, including Hycuto in the statement. (He knew the dog could talk.)

"I very much like this one," Hycuto told him, pointing at the mosaic with one paw. "How much does it cost?"

Jack eyed up the piece and then the customer. "How much are you willing to pay?" he asked Hycuto slyly.

"Hmm..." Hycuto was tallying up his sales at his store, judging how much he could afford to spend. "I'll pay you $1,000 for it," he answered. After all, he figured that the beautiful mosaic would help to increase his number of customers, and therefore his number of sales.

Jack was glad to sell his art for such a generous price, and closed the deal immediately. Hycuto forked over the cash, and Jack handed over the mosaic; except that Hycuto couldn't carry it, so they had to hire a moving truck from Face Hunters' Facilities to tote it over to Hycuto's Dog Food and then Hyoma walked Hycuto home to his store.

On the way back, they saw team Lavushka, but Hycuto didn't say anything, so no one gave them awkward stares. What did make people stare was when the walking duo got back to Hycuto's Dog Food. The giant mosaic mural had been hung on the back wall in view of the front windows of the shop. Hycuto's belief in the mosaic attracting customers had been true. People already flocked in front of the shop, waiting to enter. In the crowd were Demure from Team Wild Fang, the lazy police of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land who had nothing better to do, Salhan and Vridick of Team Chandora, and even Johannes, who was usually a cat fan, not a dog fan. Anyways, let's suffice it to say that Hycuto's Dog Food had a lot more business than usual. Until it started raining, thundering, and lightninging again. (Yes, I know lightninging isn't a word.)

* * *

**I've been wanting to write about this topic for a while, but finally got around to it now. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Xbox, Wii, Ps3, Nintendo, etc. Or Beyblade.**

***SPOILER ALERT FOR NEXT SECTION! READ IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE TOPIC*  
The next section after this one will feature Kyoya and Nile, because they're just that cool, you know.**

_Yu Tendo's Nintendo_

"Lalelalela," sang Yu Tendo as he walked through the streets in the rain. Hardly anyone else was outside; hardly any of the prominent citizens. They stayed in their houses and/or stores, out of the rain. (It was the day after Hycuto's walk, which had happened the day after Tsubasa's "small" party.) Yu was not among those who preferred to be cooped up inside (which was most everybody, even almost all of those who were supposed to be guarding the town against Zeo Zaggart).

Yu wandered along the sidewalk, smiling through the rain until a particularly loud BOOM of thunder jolted him into taking refuge in the nearest shop: Argo's Appliances. Yu found himself to be utterly fascinated with all the electronics that Argo sold in his store. He moved first from TV to TV, staring at all the cool shows that were on each and every one.

After Yu had been hanging around his store for a little over an hour, Argo decided that now was the time to sell some of his hottest merchandise to the totally hooked youngster.

Argo sidled up and said, "Hi, Yu. Wanna buy some of this store's best selling, most attractive items?"

Yu's eyes lit up. "Oh goody! What do you have in stock, Argo?"

"Well, I have the newest games for Wii, Xbox, Ps3, and more! Also, I have the Nintendo 3DS and all its' games. So what would you like?" Argo asked Yu.

Yu looked quite thoughtful for a while. Then he replied: "I would like to take a look at the DS you mentioned."

"Okay." Argo led Yu toward the section of his store dedicated to DS games and devices. Once they got there, Yu got all wide-eyed, amazed at the vast selection available to him. He picked out a 3DS and several games before leaving the store with his purchases.

Back at his shop: Yu's Yo-yos, he was completely distracted by the appliances he had bought. Whenever he didn't have customers (and sometimes when he didn't realize he had customers,) he played games on his new DS. It would be fair to say that Yu was obsessed.

That night, he stayed up two hours past his usual bedtime playing his new games. When he finally got to sleep, he dreamed of MarioKart races, strategies for his other games, and more.

The next day, it was bright and sunny. The storm had finally come to an end. Yu slept in a bit later than usual, but then hurried over to open up his store for business. He had the self-control _not _to bring his new addiction (the DS) with him, so as soon as his closing hours rolled around, he scurried home, grabbed the DS and multiple game cartridges, and headed over to sit by the entrance to Zeo's Zoo, which was always a beautiful place to hang out in and around.

Yu happily played his DS until the sun set upon Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land and night spread its cloak across the town. Yu hardly noticed as the daylight dimmed slowly because his DS shone with its own light. What Yu did notice was when a car came roaring down the street. Its headlights jerked him out of his DS trance and back into reality.

"What?!" Yu exclaimed, looking all around himself. "It's already night?" Then he scurried on home and went to bed.

*...Meanwhile...*

Slam! The car door shut after Ray got out. "Thanks for the ride, Joe," he said to the random citizen of the town that had given him a ride back into Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land and dropped him off at Hyoma's Hotel.

"No problem." Joe waved out the window to Ray as he drove away.

Ray had decided to head back into the town he had gotten kicked out of because Tyson had _still_ not come back. Ray had figured that either Tyson had gotten in trouble and would need help getting out, or that the town authorities had decided to let him back in, which meant Ray also would be let back into the hotel that he and his friends had stayed in during their entire visit.

Ray walked through the doors and nodded "hi" to the clerk, who recognized him and let him through. (Not everyone in the town had known of the "banishment" of Tyson and Ray.) Ray then headed up to the room that he (unfortunately) shared with Tyson. He walked right in, but the room was empty; in a sense. Tyson had obviously been being his usual self. There were all sorts of clothing and garbage like pretzel bags, potato chip bags, and empty candy wrappers all over the floor.

Ray sighed and cleaned up his side of the room by throwing all the garbage on Tyson's side. Then he went next door to speak to Max and Kenny (He didn't dare knock on Hilary's door. She would most likely be _very_ angry at a disturbance this late at night.). Ray knocked once, but no one answered. Ray knocked twice, but there was still no answer. Ray knocked three times, but there was_ still_ no answer. Ray then proceeded to tap out a message in Morse Code to his friends.

'This is Ray. Open up.'

Immediately, Kenny flung the door open and hauled Ray inside. "Ray, buddy! Why didn't you come back sooner?"

"I didn't know if I could," Ray admitted to him. "I kept expecting Tyson to come back after being booted back out of town. Speaking of Tyson, where is he? And why does he always mess up the room?" Ray explained how Tyson had left clothing and wrappers all over the room's floor.

Kenny laughed. "Well, I can't answer your second question, but I can answer your first. Tyson and Max went downstairs to the hotel game room, where Hyoma is hosting square-dancing lessons."

Kenny and Ray laughed and laughed until someone down the way yelled at them to shut up. Then, after he had sobered up, Ray said a polite "goodbye" to Kenny and headed over to talk to Kai, who had his own room.

Knock knock knock. Ray paused before knocking again, but there was still no answer. "Kai? Are you in there?" Ray asked.

There was a moment of silence. Then a voice said "I'm right here."

Ray spun around. Kai was behind him, holding the key-card to his hotel room. "So, you finally came back," Kai said.

Ray wasn't sure if this was an insult or not, so he didn't say anything.

"You could have came back sooner." Kai had moved toward the door and opened his room with the key-card.

Ray was starting to get suspicious. Kai seemed to be acting odder than usual, so Ray wondered if the townspeople had gotten to him or something. "Kai, what's up?" Ray asked, both concern and curiosity eminent in his voice.

Kai tilted him head to one side. "The ceiling," he replied coolly.

After than, Ray gave up and went to bed, soon to be woken up and forced to learn square-dancing moves from his over-excited roommate, Tyson.

* * *

**Ready? Set? Go! Final installment in this chapter. Enjoy, and as always, REVIEW!**

**To DragonThunder: I really appreciate your reviews, especially the one on the first Beyblade Town story. As an author, I'm always glad to know that people are continuing to read and enjoy what I write, even long after I've posted.**

_The Great Story Swap_

Early that next morning, Kai headed out to the Beyblade Battlegrounds. He wondered what training would take place today. Once he got to his destination, he was greeted by an ecstatic King.

"Today is FUN day!" King told him happily.

Kai blinked. "Does FUN stand for something?"

Nile walked up. "Yeah, it stands for Freaky Unknown Ninjas."

"That was sarcasm." Kai hit the nail on the head.

"Jokes aside, today actually _is_ fun day," Kyoya told Kai, coming over to join in the conversation. "I decided that we all needed a break, so today we'll go out and have fun."

"AFTER we do 100 sit-ups and push-ups," Nile added.

King sighed, but complied, as did Kai. After the four of them had finished their calisthenics, they walked over to Dashan's Donuts for a treat. The place was more mobbed than usual because the police happened to be there on their "unofficial official" donut break. Once all of Kyoya, Nile, and King's fans saw them, they got swarmed.

"Oh, can I have your autograph?" sighed one girl to Nile.

"Um... okay." Nile couldn't bear to be mean to a fan, but that meant they ended up setting up an autograph table at the end of the checkout line. Dashan happily provided them with free complimentary donuts, as they were increasing his already profitable business greatly.

Kyoya couldn't help but think that things weren't usually like this. He guessed that it was because he and the others hadn't made a public appearance in a while.

Anyways, after the autograph rush was over, Kyoya made an executive decision to head back to the Beyblade Battlegrounds.

"What?" asked King through a mouthful of donut (he had coerced Dashan into giving him a free bakers' dozen in a box to-go). "Does this mean FUN day is canceled?"

"On the contrary, it's a go for sure," Kyoya reassured him. "We'll just have fun back at the Beyblade Battlegrounds."

King wasn't looking quite as happy as before. "But that's not as much fun as going out and about," he pouted.

"Oh, come on, King. I'll even let you battle a challenger if we have one," Kyoya said, throwing a bribe into the deal.

"Well, okay." That fixed things for King. He was, however, disappointed that no challenger awaited them upon their return, and therefore disappeared off somewhere else inside the top level of the Beyblade Battlegrounds.

"That's okay," said Nile. "We can have story-time!"

"What kind of story?" asked Kai, who had been silent for a while.

"Good question," said Nile. "How about anything!" He then turned to Kyoya. "Why don't you start?"

Kyoya, who would usually be annoyed at this idea, surprisingly agreed. "I've got the perfect one," he told them. "It's an old American western tale that a friend of mine told me once."

"Okay, let's hear it!" King said excitedly (he had just returned from making popcorn for all of them after finishing his donuts).

After the popcorn had been passed out, Kyoya began. "The whole showdown started back in the old wild wild west. No one knows the exact reason for its beginning, but that's beside the point. It was around the time of the sunset when one cowboy galloped across the desert dunes on his horse. The wind blew the horse's mane, and tumbleweeds rolled across the sandy, parched ground. Soon, another cowboy came across the desert as well. He rode up facing the other cowboy, and their profiles stood out in sharp contrast to the sunset behind them. Slowly, both of them drew out their guns, aimed at each other, and shot! The gunshots rang in the empty silence of the desert as both cowboys fell off their horses; dead."

There was a shocked silence. No one in the room had expected that kind of ending. Then Nile started to do a slow clap. "Nice story, Kyoya. I'd say that unexpected ending made it interesting right up to the very end."

Kai and King joined in the clapping as well. "Who will go next?" King asked through a mouthful of popcorn (he was thoroughly enjoying the treat he had made himself, and the others, but mainly himself).

"I will!" Nile volunteered himself. "I too have an old western story, so don't laugh."

"Why would we laugh?" Kai asked.

Nile didn't answer, but instead started his tale. "A long time ago, in a far away land called The West, there was a cowboy. He was trekking through the desert on foot when he came face to face with his arch-nemesis, who was about 25 yards away from him, so he stopped walking and stood still, leaning against a tall saguaro cactus. After a few minutes, during which the arch-nemesis stared the first cowboy down, the cowboy began to get an arm-ache. Leaning against the cactus was quite painful as well. By that time, the arch-nemesis had also leaned up against a different cactus, because he didn't want to be shown up. After about an hour of this, they both gave in to the pain and mentally acknowledged each other as equals. They walked away, but neither one ever forgot that one time when they had fought a battle; by cactus."

"Bravo!" clapped the still popcorn-munching King. Kyoya and Kai clapped as well.

"I must say, Nile. That story was quite unlike you, what with the bizarre ending and, well, the whole story was bizarre," Kyoya told his friend.

"Are you kidding? I loved that story!" came a new voice which everyone turned to face. "That's right, I've finally made it to the top! Number one!" shouted the one and only Masamune Kadoya, pointing his index finger straight up in the air.

"Oh yay!" shouted King, jumping up and spilling his popcorn but not caring.

Masamune continued on as if not hearing King at all. "Nile, I'm flattered that you're passing on the story I told you during that one town meeting. You know, the one with the boring speech before your own."

Nile nodded. He had indeed retold Masamune's story. Then King broke in again. "Masamune, you will battle me since you have made it to the top! Kyoya and Nile said I could!"

Masamune accepted at once. In his mind, any battle was a good battle. "Alright, King! Come at me with everything you've got!" He was thinking of how cool he would be when he defeated the leader of the town, and couldn't help but say "Number one!" again.

Kyoya pressed a button and a bey stadium rose from the floor. King and Masamune took their places, and then Nile started the countdown. "3!"

"2!" called out Kyoya.

"1!" they both yelled.

"Let it rip!" screamed King and Masamune, launching their beys into the stadium. Variares appeared to be in defense mode, spinning strongly in the center of the stadium.

"Ha ha!" cried Masamune, whose Striker was an attack type. "Striker, go get him; barrage mode! Hiyah!"

Striker switched modes and turned its course toward Variares. Masamune shouted "Gooooooooooo!" and expected a head-on collision.

Instead, the nanosecond before Striker hit, Variares raced off at King's command with Striker close behind, chasing down its prey. After a minute of Striker and Variares high-tailing it around the stadium in a high-speed chase game, King got bored. "Variares!" he called out to his bey. Variares did a quick turnabout and the first head-on collision of the battle occurred.

"Aha!" shouted Masamune. "You're using reverse rotation!"

"You're right, I am!" King told him. "Knock him right out of the stadium, Variares!"

"Not on my watch!" But Striker flew and crashed to the ground, almost out of the stadium. "Yeah Striker! Way to hang in there. Now mode change and attack again! We'll wear him down, reverse rotation or not!"

Variares and Striker clashed head-on, then separated, raced around the entire circumference of the dish and then attacked again. The power of the collisions shook the floor beneath the battlers' and spectators' feet. In fact, Kai imagined that the entire pyramid shook. He nearly shook his head in disbelief at the raw power being exerted in this heated battle. He looked at his own blade, Dranzer. "Can I make you even stronger?" he murmured, his words lost in the noise of beys and bladers' spirits clashing. He had a feeling that he could. Perhaps...

* * *

"This is great, men! Just keep the cameras rolling and we'll have our slot filled in no-time!"

* * *

"Hit him hard, Variares! Sword of Ares!" called out King, his excitement clearly heard in his voice as he started pulling out some of his bey's _real_ power.

"Striker, defend yourself!" Masamune commanded. Striker appeared in unicorn form and created a shield with its horn, blocking the devastating blow of the Sword of Ares. Its effect on Striker caused minimal damage. Masamune half wished that Madoka was here with her computer to help him out like she had in the World Championships, but then decided that the #1 blader could do it on his own.

"Striker, Lightning Sword Flash!"

"Variares, Ares Shield!"

The two exchanged blows for quite some time, but the spectators; Kyoya, Nile, and Kai; were kept riveted to the battle.

"Time to finish you off for good!" Masamune told his opponent. Both beys and bladers alike had taken a toll from the battle and were exhausted.

"Time to finish _you_ off for good!" King echoed. "Variares, King of Thundersword!"

"Striker, Flash of Lightning!"

The forms of Variares and Striker emerged to do battle. Ares lifted his sword to the sky and red lightning charged it with power. Striker neighed to the heavens and charged its sword-bearing opponent. Horn and sword met, and an explosion rocked the stadium, the room, even the great pyramid itself. When the smoke cleared, a shocked Masamune's Striker lay at his feet on the ground, stuck fast. Variares's blow had been powerful indeed.

"Oh yeah! I won!" shouted King as Variares returned to his hand. He could now proclaim himself the King of victory. As Masamune turned to leave the pyramid, muttering under his breath about having been defeated by King yet again, King called out after him, "Hey Masamune! Bring me some food if you come back!"

Everybody laughed, even Masamune. "Okay, who's next for story-time?" the exulting King asked after his defeated opponent had vacated the premises.

"Well, since I had the last story, I think it's my turn to nominate someone," Nile said. "I think that King should go next. After all, he must have some great ideas after that stellar battle."

"Thank you," King said with a bow. "I'm sorry to break the trend, but I don't know any western stories off hand. But I _can_ give you a firsthand account of my trip to the Parthenon. It was supersplendorriffic!"

King then proceeded to give a lengthy account of his trip, which was surprisingly riveting, considering its length. After that, it was Kai's turn. "I also don't know any American Westerns, but I _do_ have a story about feudal Japan." Kai cleared his throat and continued. "A long time ago in feudal Japan, there was a lord who had a vast army... of ninjas! With their shuriken (throwing stars), black outfits which rendered them nearly invisible, and kick-butt ninja powers, they were nearly unstoppable. One day, a rival lord sent some of the best of his army to defeat the lord of the ninjas and take his land. The lord of the ninjas simply laughed; his army defeated the seemingly weak foot-soldiers in no time at all. The rival lord was greatly angered. He called his best samurai, Jushushin, and gave him the task of defeating the ninja army. Jushushin gathered his fellow samurai, 10,000 strong in all, and led them to the rival lord's estate. The ninjas appeared seemingly out of thin air, but the samurai were ready. Jushushin led them in the attack. The ninjas were scattered, some killed, and the samurai lord rode in on his dragon, Shalalaza, victorious at last."

Kyoya, Nile, and King clapped. "I liked the dragon part," King told him.

"Yeah, it was a nice touch," said Nile. Kyoya nodded in agreement. And thus ended the great story swap.


	25. The Hometown Boy

**Sorry that it took so long to post that last chapter, but I hope you enjoyed all the different sections. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well. Oh, and now for the disclaimer that I usually forget. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own beyblade.**

**King: I wish you did.**

**Me: Really?**

**King: Yeah, because then I could rule over everything! Muahahahaha!**

**Me: …**

**Ryuga: I'd like to see you try.**

**King: I wouldn't be talking, Ryuga. You haven't been in the story since chapter 21.**

**Ryuga: Oh yeah? Bring it, King.**

**Me: STOP STOP STOP! Let's just get on with the story.**

_Chapter 25 The Hometown Boy_

It was a sunny day in Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land. It seemed to get sunnier and sunnier, hotter and hotter since those rainy days several days ago. Many of the citizens of the town had gone to Ian's Ice Cream and Salhan's Supersoaking Water Park to cool down. (The diving well had been reopened.) The town guards had been looking after the town carefully ever since the rain, thunder, and lightning had ceased. Now it was time for the head guard to make his daily report to King.

Since King was not at his castle, he decided to mail in his report instead of chasing pointlessly around town looking for King. So off he went to Tobio's Post Office. It was cool and air conditioned inside, quite a change from the sweltering hot outdoors.

"Good morning sir," Tobio greeted him. "What may I get for you today? Our new, one-of-a-kind town stamps have recently arrived!" Tobio held up stamps that had an aerial picture of the town, as seen from the plane Masamune had sky-dived off of, along with a picture of King. Most prominent on the aerial view were Ryuto's Roller Coasters and, of course, the ever-famous Beyblade Battlegrounds.

"The stamps are fascinating, really, but I just wanted to mail this to King." The head guard passed his letter over the counter to Tobio, who promptly put one of the stamps on it and told his customer the price.

* * *

Back at home, Ryuto turned on his TV. Of course, Ryo TV automatically popped up; it was considered the top station in town. Ryuto sighed. It was the _only_ station in town. All other stations were imported, or whatever TV stations are, from out of town.

Right now, an interesting clip was playing. "Goooooooooo!" came the voice of Masamune, who was battling King; apparently the clip had been filmed at the Beyblade Battlegrounds. As the segment rolled on, Ryuto realized that this was no clip; the entire battle had been filmed. "Trust Ryo to get some interesting stuff on his station," Ryuto said admiringly. But what came on TV next shocked the entire town, even Ryuto.

A headline came up, and Ryo was saying "Greetings from the Immortal Phoenix! We have some breaking, shocking news. Well, the first one isn't so shocking, but-"

Hikaru came onscreen. "Director Ryo, just get on with it."

Ryo looked slightly put out for about a nanosecond. Then he was back to happily announcing. "King has declared a town meeting today at 4:00 pm sharp outside the Beyblade Battlegrounds... blah blah blah."

Hikaru came back on and cleared her throat. "What he means is that important details are scheduled to be discussed. That's right, the ending of The Plan will finally be revealed!"

Studio applause filled the air.

"That's exactly what I said!" exclaimed Ryo, reclaiming the spotlight. "But that's not all!" Ryo turned proudly to the screen behind him as the words HOMETOWN BOY WINS MARATHON appeared behind him. "That's right, our very own Ryuga competed in it and won in record time!"

Something unintelligible was spoken in the background and Ryo said, "I'm sorry viewers, but we _don't_ have the times. But all y'all know that Google is a wonderful invention!" Ryo hinted.

Hikaru walked back on and added that it was the _Boston_ marathon. The studio applause noise swelled to a dull roar. Then the TV short-circuited and/or Ryo had connection problems at his television tower. Anyway, the newscast came to a swift end.

Ryuto frowned at this unexpected... issue, but decided to turn off the TV and go outside and do something before the town meeting at four. Once outside, he realized why he had gone inside: It was smoldering hot!

"Gee, what's up with this temperature?" asked Ryuto's friend Bao, who was walking by. "It's harder to walk around out here than it was training with the Beylin Fist in the desert!" Seeing Ryuto's look, he added, "Well, maybe not _quite_ that bad."

"I think we need to do something to take our minds off the head, Bao," Ryuto said. "Let's go over to Chris's place."

Bao nodded, and off they went to Chris's Car & Car Repair Shop. On the way, they saw Gingka talking animatedly to Kenta, who listened with a look of bliss on his face. Bao and Ryuto couldn't help but drift closer and listen in.

"And he said to me, 'Gingka, you underestimate me _way_ too often. I hardly even broke a sweat.' And I said 'Of course you did' and he said 'Well, fine. I'll admit that I did. But so what? I still won in record time.'"

"Wow!" sighed Kenta. "Ryuga is _so_ cool! But did you know he fired me?"

"No! What...-" Gingka's voice trailed off as Bao and Ryuto headed off, ignoring the conversation now that it had taken a trivial turn.

Once the two reached Chris's place, Chris decided to leave his employees in charge and go off with his friends. He also needed to think about something other than the heat.

"Gee, I sure hope it cools down by the time that town meeting rolls around," Chris told them.

They both nodded. Then Chris spoke again. "You know, I'm pretty hungry. Why don't we go to Toby's Tacos for some food?"

"Yeah, sure," said Bao.

"I'm game," said Ryuto, who had just realized how hungry he was. So off the three of them went to eat. Each one ordered something different; one tacos, one quesadillas, and one enchiladas. But even by the time they finished, there were still three and a half hours to kill before the town meeting at four.

* * *

"A town meeting?" Ryuga yawned. "Seems like we have them every other week." He considered most meetings to be dull and utterly pointless, useless for him to attend. "Is there anything... good... that's going to happen?"

"Well, there _is_ going to be a discussion on The Plan," Damian said. He had stopped by Ryuga's Readables to chat to the famous winner of the Boston Marathon about the recently scheduled town meeting.

"Oh, wonderful. The Plan." Ryuga's voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Damian was now curious. "What do you have against The Plan? I think it's ingenious!"

"It seems that everyone in town just blindly follows Kyoya's Plan-"

"And Nile's," Damian interjected.

Ryuga glared at him and continued. "Oh, sure, Zeo Zaggart is gone from town. Hooray! Let's celebrate! The Plan succeeded. Why is it continuing?"

Damian opened his mouth to answer, but Ryuga wasn't done. "Oh, I know. But how did they know? Very well, I shall attend this town meeting, if only to see whether they _truly_ know or not."

* * *

4:00 pm rolled around. And so did some clouds, which sheltered the town from the heat. All of the citizens were grateful; all except for one. Ryuga had appreciated the scorching heat. It had reminded him of volcano training with Ldrago Destructor. But these thoughts soon exited his mind as King King began to speak.

"Welcome, welcome, citizens of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land! Here we are outside the Beyblade Battlegrounds, as that is currently the only place big enough to hold all the citizens of my lovely town. Cheers, and let's keep growing!"

Here, Gingka led the applause, as usual.

"Keep growing?" came a voice from the back. "Then _I_ shall join you and your... town."

Everyone turned to face a tall, strong-looking guy with brown, spiky hair. "Aguma!" shouted out Bao to his Beylin Fist buddy.

"Yes, welcome," King told him. Anyone was welcome (excluding Zeo Zaggart) in town, especially this strong legendary blader. "We are now going to have a speech by none other than Kyoya and Nile!"

The crowd applauded once more as the two co-owners of the Beyblade Battlegrounds stepped up onto the platform. Aguma had sidled over to where Bao was standing with Ryuto and Chris. "What did I miss?" he asked. Bao then proceeded to fill him in on The Plan.

As soon as the crowd quieted down, Kyoya began. "The end of The Plan is drawing near."

"Is it really?" asked Yuki.

"Shhhh!" hissed Gingka, Kenta, Tsubasa, and some others.

Kyoya went on as if the interruption had never occurred. "The Plan clearly speaks of a large-scale attack from Zeo Zaggart."

"An army," Nile added. "An army led by the arch-nemesis of the town."

Gingka gasped. "How are we to prepare ourselves?"

"I'm afraid the time to prep is short," Nile said.

"In just three days' time, Zeo Zaggart will return and attempt the utter destruction of the town with his army," Kyoya said. "Nile and I will open up the Beyblade Battlegrounds to all citizens so that they may train both their bodies and their beys for this final battle."

"It sounds tough for sure, but if we work together as a town, the army of Zeo Zaggart won't stand a chance!" Nile exclaimed.

"But how could Zeo Zaggart create an army?" piped up Yu, who was standing by Gingka and the others in the front row. "That guy is just plain uncool."

"Zeo Zaggart's father has helped him in this endeavor. We just don't know how. That is one thing The Plan doesn't cover," said Kyoya.

"Does this Plan of yours give exact numbers?" a random in-prominent citizen asked.

"About 1,000," Nile said.

"1,001," came a voice from the back. It was the Dragon Emperor, adding his all-knowingness to the discussion. "But I'm including Zeo Zaggart himself, and I'm guessing you weren't, Nile."

Nile nodded. 1,000 (in the army) + 1 (Zeo Zaggart himself) = 1,001. He and Kyoya wrapped up their speech with lots of encouragement and walked down the stairs while the crowd both applauded and talked amongst themselves.

"Aha! We outnumber them by 11, no, 12 counting Aguma!" proclaimed Masamune.

"And even more if you include my biker gang," Busujima said. He and his fellow bikers had been present at the meeting. They had no love for Zeo Zaggart, and had decided that they owed the town a little bey power after having broken the speed limit laws numerous times.

"Zeo Zaggart? An army?" Tyson was in shock. So were Kenny, Max, Hilary, and Ray, all of whom had attended the town meeting, as there was nothing else to do with all the shops closed up and all.

"I am _so_ going to the Beyblade Battlegrounds!" Masamune Kadoya, the so-called #1 blader said. "You should come, Gingka! Then we can have a battle!"

"Okay, Masamune!" shouted Gingka, who was pumped just thinking about it. "Ooh! I can't _wait_ for tomorrow!"

Kai was fingering his Dranzer. He knew his part in The Plan and was confident in himself and his bey.

Tsubasa eyed up Eagle, which glinted in the sun. Rose asked him "Are you ready?" Tsubasa nodded. He would train by himself. "Cree!" Oh, and with his eagle.

Nearby, Damian was laughing. "Haha! Time to battle tomorrow," he told Zeo and Toby.

"What about HIM?" asked Zeo, gesturing toward Jack, who was babbling about Befall's artwork on the canvas of the stadium, and how he still owed Ryuga a personal picture of Hades. Damian shrugged. "He can come along if he likes."

Tetsuya was making Teru crabby by talking about Gasher while scuttling in circles around him. Kenta was trying to convince himself that he was strong. The Garcias were doing a team cheer and Team Wang Hu Zhong was in a huddle, probably talking strategy. Many of the in-prominent citizens were looking terrified. Kyoya, Nile, King, and Kai were giving them advice on what to do during the battle, such as help up fallen or injured bladers, provide food and shelter (the battle was sure to be long and hard-fought), and the popular command of run and hide.

Demure, Team Lavushka, Salhan, and Vridick were talking intently. Ryo, Tobio, and Hikaru were speaking of Ryo's Television Tower short-circuiting (what that had to do with The Plan, I'm not quite sure). Benkei was telling Hyoma to battle him tomorrow at the Beyblade Battlegrounds and to bring Hycuto along. Doji was all by his lonesome, thinking of how he could disturb everyone by showing up at the Beyblade Battlegrounds and cackled evilly to himself. Julian was saying to Klaus, Sophie, and Wales about how the town had had experience battling an army before: _Their_ army of helicopter parachuting bladers. "I guess one could say we did them a favor," Julian Konzern said proudly as the Facehunters and Johannes walked by.

All in all, most everyone was prepping for the big battle by battling each other the next three days at the Beyblade Battlegrounds, all in preparation for the big confrontation on that fourth day. "Huh." The Dragon Emperor was by no means impressed. "Just what will they do when they realize just how hard this fight will be? We are ready, Ldrago. _We_ are ready." Ryuga wondered if he should make a surprise appearance at the Beyblade Battlegrounds tomorrow. That would sure shake things up. "To go or not to go... hmm..." And with that, Ryuga walked away from everyone at the town meeting. As a fork of red lightning flashed, obscuring him from view, he appeared to have simply vanished into thin air when the sky cleared.

**Ryuga: Ha! See, I'm back! Beat that, King.**

**King: I still rule the town!**

**Gingka: GO PEGASUS!**

**Ryuga & King: ...**


	26. Cleaning Up

**Well, here's the next chapter, the first one in the set where everyone in Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land starts their three day training excursions at the Beyblade Battlegrounds. Once again, the disclaimer. Kyoya?**

**Kyoya: xxstarsnowxx does not own Beyblade Metal Fusion, Beyblade Metal Masters, Beyblade Metal Fury, Beyblade, and Beyblade G-Revolution.**

**King: *Sigh* I still want to rule over everything.**

**Me: Chill, King. You rule the town. And shouldn't you be prepping for the big battle coming up?**

**King: Yeah, I've got Variares spinning right next to me while I'm saying this.**

**Me: Smooth...**

_Chapter 26 Cleaning Up_

Kyoya and Nile awoke early the morning after the town meeting in order to open up the Beyblade Battlegrounds for people in town to train at. Already, there were several people out there, waiting for it to open, including the still pumped Gingka, Masamune, and tag-along Kenta. "Yeah! Kyoya! Nile! I'm ready to battle!" called out a hyper Gingka.

"Ooh! Ooh! Me too!" Masamune felt obligated to call out something as well.

As soon as Kyoya had opened the door, the three of them ran inside and marveled at the overnight changes that had been made. Most of the auto-launchers had been taken out and replaced with huge bey stadiums in which bladers could battle each other. Gingka and Masamune immediately ran to a bey pit, took their places across from each other, and started the count down.

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"So, I just wanted you to know that I _did_ take your advice, Nile," Kenta told his now even more of a hero, causing Nile to miss the most important phrase of the battle. He looked over and saw Pegasus and Striker facing off already. Attack type battles tended to be quite interesting. Nile nodded to whatever Kenta had just said and said "Uhuh."

"Oh cool! Let's get started!" Kenta raced over to a different stadium and placed Sagitario on its launcher.

Nile walked over, unconcerned that he had unwittingly accepted to battle the youngster. "Don't go easy on me just because you like me," Kenta told Nile.

In your dreams, thought Nile. "I won't go easy on you! 3! 2! 1!"

"Let it rip!" both bladers called. Horuseus and Sagitario clashed head on. Clearly Horuseus ruled the stadium when it came to attack power. Nile's bey pushed Sagitario to its limit, forcing it to the edge of the stadium.

"This will be over far sooner than I had thought!" Nile called out.

Kenta gritted his teeth and yelled, "Gooooo! Sagitario Flame Claw!"

"Huh! If you have to bring out your special moves so early, you stand no chance against Horuseus and me!" Nile told Kenta. He had known from the beginning that victory was absolutely his.

Sagitario's move allowed it to back up Horuseus a bit and then be on the run. The only way I can win is to out-stamina him, Kenta thought. "Run, Sagitario!" he cried as Horuseus started to chase his bey down.

"You cannot escape the King of the Sky!" Nile told Kenta with scorn. At that same time, Horuseus made a quick turn and sent Sagitario flying out of the stadium. It landed with a clatter at Kenta's feet.

Nile turned away as Kenta muttered something about his being wrong in assuming Tetsuya was tougher to battle than Nile. There were other things for him to do, such as guide the steady stream of citizens into the Beyblade Battlegrounds and to the various levels they wished to go to. Meanwhile, Gingka and Masamune's battle was still rip-roaring. (Nile's battle had not been very long at all.)

Blitz Striker had just used its special move, Flash of Lightning, and Cosmic Pegasus had been sent reeling. "One more time!" called Masamune. "Flash of Lightning!" It hit Pegasus head on, and this time Gingka's bey flew high into the air.

"Fly high, Pegasus!" Gingka told his bey. "Soar into the skies! Special move, Pegasus, Cosmic Tornado!" Pegasus spiraled down, gathering power and shattering the shield Blitz Striker had created. Masamune soon discovered his Striker on the floor at his feet, much to his dismay.

"What? You beat me?" he asked Gingka in shock.

"Oh yeah!" Gingka punched his fist to the sky. "Legendary blader power rules!" Then he shook Masamune's hand and complimented him on his part in the battle. Nile soon lost interest in them, and looked elsewhere. He soon found the former Starbreakers duking it out in a tag-team battle: Zeo & Toby vs. Damian & Jack. Nile looked around, but didn't see Kyoya anywhere, so he settled down to watch another battle.

"Special move," Damian was saying. "Open Hades Gate!" Everyone participating in the battle found themselves in a dark, desolate region: Hades.

Zeo, who was fighting with his Fox bey, really didn't know what to do. Apparently, his partner Toby had no clue either. It seemed that the battle would shortly end when Jack called out his special move, Befall the Ripper, when a new bey entered the stadium and broke the Hades spell. The four (now five) bladers found themselves on top of a high building instead.

"What?" snarled Damian. "Who dares to interfere with one of my battles?"

"Who messes with my art?" asked an equally furious Jack.

"It is I, the Immortal Phoenix, here to stop your tyrannical rule!" proclaimed Ryo.

Gingka, who was also watching the battle, smacked his head with his hand. He needed to teach his father some manners. It wasn't like Team Starbreaker was evil anymore. They were out from under the control of Dr. Ziggurat, which meant that he didn't hold any sway over them anymore. "Dad," Gingka began to say.

Ryo whirled around to face his son. "What?"

"Everyone in this town is supposed to be friends. You shouldn't go around stirring up trouble," Gingka said.

Ryo looked slightly dazed, and then shook his head as if to clear it. "O-okay," he said. Burn Fireblaze returned to his hand and the battle continued on after Gingka apologized for his father's 'burning bey spirit,' which sometimes got the better of him. Gingka sighed. He didn't always understand Ryo, so he couldn't expect others to.

Several hours later, who should enter the Beyblade Battlegrounds but Tyson, Ray, and Max. Kenny and Hilary also entered behind them, but they had just come along to watch; they themselves owned no blades. Tyson, though he knew the purpose of why the pyramid was open for free (to defeat the army of his friend Zeo Zaggart), could not resist the lure of bey battles. He ran over to Gingka and asked if he could battle him.

"Of course!" exclaimed Gingka. He had just been in the process of searching for an opponent himself.

The two of them set up, counted down, and let it rip! Off went Pegasus and Dragoon. As they were both attack types, they clashed head on immediately. Dragoon went flying; Pegasus obviously had more sheer power.

"Oh yeah!" Gingka shouted, punching the air. "Cosmic Pegasus rules!"

"Grrrr!" Tyson wouldn't give up without a fight. "Go Dragoon!" His bey whipped up a twister, which caused Pegasus to loose touch with the ground and fly into the air, spiraling along the air currents. "Aha! I've got you now!" Tyson yelled.

"Never!" called out Gingka. "As a legendary blader entrusted with a star fragment, I cannot lose to you. Aaah!" Pegasus pulsed with power and cut through Tyson's tornado, making contact with Dragoon, which was at the center. Dragoon flew into the air and crashed into a wall of the pyramid. Tyson slowly walked over to retrieve it, but a man stepped out of the shadows in a corner and grabbed it before him.

"Now now, Gingka. Was that really necessary?" the man asked as Tyson demanded that he put Dragoon down.

Gingka's face was truly a scene to behold. He was shocked, his jaw practically on the ground (not really), and there was a soft clinking sound as Pegasus hit the floor; it had fallen out of Gingka's nerveless grip.

Clink, clink, clllllink. It rolled to a stop. The room was filled with total silence. "What?" asked the man. "The Beyblade Battlegrounds is clearly open to each and every citizen."

"I-I didn't expect _you_ to show up, Doji!" Gingka finally said.

"Well now, I'm here," said Doji, a condescending tone eminent in his voice. "And you still haven't paid for that time you defeated me, Gingka. Ready your bey. 3. 2."

Gingka scrambled to recover Pegasus and load it on its launcher. "1. Let it rip!"

Dark Wolf and Cosmic Pegasus circled each other in the stadium. "It's been a long time, Doji," said Gingka, "since the Dark Nebula tried to... oh, what was it...? 'Cover the world in darkness!'"

Doji frowned. "That was the will of Lightning Ldrago and the dark power, _not_ our organization."

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Don't lecture me," Gingka told him. "I already get enough of it from that guy," he jabbed a finger at Ryo. As Gingka was talking and looking away from the battle, Doji used the opportunity to press his advantage; his balance-type Dark Wolf pushed Cosmic Pegasus to the very edge of the stadium. Gingka turned back just in time and pushed his bey back against Dark Wolf, tossing it to the opposite side of the stadium.

"At this rate, this battle will end the same as that other one," he said.

Doji frowned once again. He did _not_ want to lose to Gingka again. "Special move. Darkness Howling Blazer!" Wolf appeared and knocked Pegasus high into the air.

Gingka smiled. "Doji, this is _exactly_ what I've been waiting for!"

"This is exactly what _I_ have been waiting for," Doji proclaimed. Dark Wolf jumped up the stadium slope and shot into the sky. "Ultimate Attack! Go!" he called.

"Grr! Doji!" Gingka pretended to be defeated as Pegasus crashed to the ground in a cloud of smoke.

"Ha ha!" cackled his opponent. "Embrace your defeat, Gingka!" To Doji's shock, though, Pegasus was still spinning. "What?!"

"Go now, Pegasus! Final drive mode!" As his bey changed modes, it sped up dramatically, crashing head on and defeating Wolf in a single blow. Doji's bey flew past him at approximately the speed of sound (although not quite, because there was no sonic boom) and smashed a crater into the floor, making Gingka wonder what kind of insurance policy Kyoya and Nile had for their business.

"M-my wolf!" cried Doji, cradling his bey in his hands. It had steam (or smoke) coming off of it. Gingka's attack had been raw power indeed. Not wanting to listen to Gingka's lengthy victory speech (which had just started), Doji melted back into the shadows of the wall and took the shortest, darkest way possible out of the pyramid.

As he was exiting, in walked Benkei, with Hyoma and Hycuto behind him. "B-b-b-bull! I'm all fired up. Ready, Hyoma?" he asked as he and his friend took their places, counted down, and let it rip.

"Ready enough to defeat you!" Hyoma told Benkei. His Rock Ares had taken up a position of defense. Bull came charging in, but seemed to pass right through Ares.

"Ugh!" Benkei moaned. That eternal defense spin track of Hyoma's annoyed the heck out of him. "Go low, Dark Bull!" Benkei commanded. That was how he always got through Hyoma's defenses.

Hyoma went all wide-eyed, but couldn't dodge Bull's attack. Ares took quite a bit of damage, but kept spinning. Hyoma looked around, but didn't see Dark Bull anywhere. A glint in the sky caught his eye. "Ares, Horn Throw Destruction!"

Hyoma's special move shot Bull out of the sky, leaving a dent in the stadium where it fell. After Bull recovered, it attacked Ares with renewed vengeance. After Benkei realized that this kind of attack could get him nowhere, he called out his special move: "Dark Bull, Red Horn Uppercut!"

Bull tossed Ares high into the sky. "No! Ares!" cried out Hyoma. He knew that he had lost. His bey fell to the ground at his feet and rolled to a stop.

"Oh yeah! Victory is mine!" cried Benkei. "Hey Kyoya! Did you just see my battle?" he asked, looking around for his "bestie."

"Yeah, I did," said Kyoya, who had seen the whole thing. "But time sure has flown by, and it's time to close up now. Everybody out!" Kyoya shooed the lingering bladers out.

"Aww..." said Gingka, who had been busy winning battles against Max, then Ray, and then both of them combined whilst the Benkei/Hyoma battle had been happening. "But I was having so much fun! Why should I leave?" Apparently he had selective hearing and/or didn't know how late it was getting.

"You can come back tomorrow, Gingka," Nile told him, taking hold of his shoulders and steering him toward the door.

"Okay. See you then!" Gingka departed on a happy note. Kyoya and Nile finished closing up and then parted ways, each to their own home. The dark, shadowy figure who had been present the entire time without anyone noticing silently vanished as well.

**Benkei: KYOYA! I WON I WON I WON!**

**Kyoya: Whoa, chill Benkei. Nile won and I'm not screaming in HIS face.**

**Benkei: Well, he only beat Kenta. I beat Hyoma.**

**Kenta: Is that an insult? I'm a Legendary Blader and you're not.**

**Benkei: I'm still stronger. B-b-b-bull!**

**Nile: So loud. **

**Kyoya: You said it. Let's get out of here.**

**Kyoya & Nile: Adios. **

**Hyoma: Stay tuned for the next chapter next week! Now I've got to get out of here too!**

**Benkei: WAAAAAIIIIIIT!**


	27. Heated Bey Training

**Hey everyone! Sorry about not posting yesterday, but I was SOOO busy. This chapter's longer than usual, but I wanted to put in lots of battles and other stuff, so enjoy. **

**Kai: As always, xxstarsnowxx does not own Beyblade. Although King still wishes she does.**

**King: Got that right! Can I battle in this chapter?**

**Me: Let the readers read and find out.**

**King: Okay everybody! Read this and find out if I battle! XD**

_Chapter 27 Heated Bey Training_

"And now, for your feature presentation, we bring you the one, the only, Immortal Phoenix on Ryo TV!" came the voice of one of the announcers for Ryo's television station. Up popped Ryo, who started to drone about something, but the owner of the TV, Johannes, wasn't interested. Not until he heard the words 'beyblading' and 'epic'. Then he became interested.

"Meow! Battles at the Beyblade Battlegrounds? I'd better head on over!" he exclaimed to himself. It was early in the day, but by the time he got there, several people had been there quite a while, including Gingka, who was still on a roll from yesterday. He had already defeated Kenta, Gaser, Yuki, and Salhan.

Johannes came in just as Gingka was exclaiming, "Oh yeah, buddy. I'm the champ!" Now Johannes knew better than to mess with Gingka and Pegasus when their fiery spirits were even more fiery than usual, so he took up a battle with Vridick, who happened to be standing around looking for a blader to battle. They counted down and let it rip at a nearby empty stadium.

"Go Storm Serpent!" called out Vridick. His bey angled itself correctly and attacked Beat Lynx with fury.

"Mrow! What an attack!" Johannes waved his hand and Lynx's spin track heightened. Storm Serpent passed right under.

"Shoot!" exclaimed Vridick.

"Step it up, Vridick!" called out Salhan, cheering on his former teammate. "Don't lose!"

"I think _I'll_ step it up!" Johannes called out. Lynx's spin track lengthened yet again, and Vridick's bey flew underneath it again. Then Lynx shortened back to normal and barrage attacked Storm Serpent, which reeled back with each and every blow.

"N-no! Serpent, fight back!" Vridick's bey attacked back, but was overcome by Lynx and knocked out of the stadium. "I-I lost." Vridick looked down at his bey as Johannes purred at his victory.

Johannes stopped purring abruptly when a commanding voice called out loudly, "Gingka. Ready yourself a team and let's battle."

It was the voice of Julian Konzern, who had arrived on the scene along with Sophie, Wales, and Klaus. "Okay!" said Gingka, who then proceeded to gather himself a team by yelling out "WHO WANTS TO BE ON MY TEAM?!"

"Ooh! Ooh! Me! Me! Count me in!" Yu Tendo scampered over, eager as ever to battle. "Let's go, Gingka!"

Next to answer his call was Masamune Kadoya, who sauntered over to join the other members of what had been Team Gan Gan Galaxy. "We need a fourth blader," he pointed out. "Where's Tsubasa?"

The members of the team searched high and low in the Beyblade Battlegrounds, but to no avail. The search was called off when Julian and his team had had their fill of waiting. "Just pick a fourth member so we can battle," Julian told Gingka and his team.

Gingka wanted Dashan to join them, but Wang Hu Zhong hadn't made an appearance at the Beyblade Battlegrounds yet, so that wasn't an option. Gingka would have happily spent the whole day looking for the perfect partner, but then one blader noticed Julian Konzern tapping his foot and looking board (borderline annoyed) and decided to step in with an option. "I'll join your team."

"What? Who said that?" asked Gingka. Yu and Masamune looked around.

"I will join your team," Kai said once again, stepping toward the designated bey stadium that the big battle would be going down in.

"Okay!" said Wales, glad the wait for the battle was over.

"Let's get this party started!" Yu exclaimed happily.

"3! 2! 1! Let it rip!" All eight bladers launched their beys; this was one big battle! Julian and his cohorts took up a stance in the middle; the Cetus beys and Capricorn protecting Gravity Destroyer.

"Ugh, not _this_ tactic again!" whined Gingka. He turned to face his teammates. "We need to attack them all at once, do you hear me? Goooo! Attack them now, Pegasus, upper mode."

Heartened by his speech, Yu and Masamune commanded their beys to attack as well. Kai followed along with them. Their combined moves should have broken through; Pegasus and Dranzer clashed with Klaus's Ax of Destruction, Striker clashed with White Cetus, and Libra with Blue Cetus. Striker and Libra fought valiantly, but couldn't break the solid Cetus wall. Pegasus and Dranzer, on the other hand, prevailed their might upon Capricorn and pushed through, forcing a gap in the defenses surrounding Destroyer.

"I'll hold him off, you close in on Destroyer, Gingka," Kai told his teammate. He flung his arm out and yelled Go Dranzer, push him out!" Dranzer swiveled around to get on the inside and started pushing Capricorn toward the edge of the stadium.

Tyson, who had randomly meandered into the Beyblade Battlegrounds about a minute earlier, was amazed at the power behind Kai's attack. "Dranzer wasn't this strong when he battled me last," Tyson muttered under his breath.

Kai, as if hearing Tyson's comment, proclaimed: "This is the extent of my power, brought to the surface through my difficult training right here in this facility with Kyoya, Nile, and King. And so, I will prove my strength through battle, right here and now. Go hard, Dranzer!"

The noise of beys pushing each other resounded through the stadium as Dranzer and Capricorn continued their titanic struggle. Meanwhile, Gingka and Pegasus had made contact with Konzern's Gravity Destroyer. "Barrage mode!" Gingka called out, trying to overwhelm his opponent with Pegasus's power.

"I won't allow it!" Julian Konzern spat. His Destroyer broke free of the attack and began to circle the stadium, picking up speed. Konzern seemed to be ignoring the cries of "Emperor!" from Sophie and Wales. They will fight their battles and I will fight mine, he thought. "Destroyer, counter mode!"

Gravity Destroyer, which was, by the way, in reverse rotation, flipped its mode and made contact with Pegasus, causing a huge shock wave to rock the stadium. The onlookers gaped in awe as all the beys in the battle struggled and strained against their own personal opponent. Destroyer & Pegasus, Capricorn & Dranzer, White Cetus & Striker, Blue Cetus & Libra.

The battle continued like this for a bit, until the youngest blader got bored. "Oh, this battle is so stinky and boring," Yu said, hands behind his head. "Let's spice things up, shall we? Libra, Inferno Blast!"

Everyone in the vicinity clapped their hands over their ears as Yu's special move rocketed through the stadium. Even at the very top of the pyramid, Kyoya and Nile, who were having a little bey "scrimmage" between Leone and Horuseus, called their beys back to their hands and raced down, knowing that a commotion of that level must mean one seriously epic battle.

Wales's Cetus flew back from the force of the blow and hit its own teammate; White Cetus. "Wales!" came the shocked voice of Sophie. Then she pulled herself together. "Time for our move."

Wales nodded. "Blue Cetus, Grand Fleet!"

"White Cetus, Grand Victoire!" Sophie called.

Yu smiled. This was getting good good good! Then a voice cut into his dream-like state. "Yu! What are you doing out there?" came the infuriated voice of Masamune. Kai added his trademark glare, and Gingka... was too busy grappling with Julian to notice. He and Konzern alone barely noticed the Inferno Blast; both bladers were adept at tuning out outside noises.

"Joint special move, Cetus, Grand Decalion!" finished the pair. Their beys surged forth along with a wave of water, which swamped the stadium and washed away Libra's Inferno Blast. Masamune had protected himself and, unknowingly, Kai and Klaus as well. Gingka and Julian had taken the full brunt of the attack and were still spinning. Libra however, had not been so lucky.

"No! My Libra!" cried Yu, holding his unmoving bey in his hands.

"Yu!" called out Gingka, feeling the pain of his friend.

"Yu!" Masamune felt hurt as well, and mentally vowed revenge. Now was the perfect time. "Striker, special move. Flash of Lightning!" Masamune's move took the unprepared Blue Cetus out of commission.

"Wales is out!" cried Masamune, the light of victory gleaming in his eyes.

"That was nicely laid out," Kyoya said to Nile.

Nile nodded. "They left themselves open after that attack. Now that Wales is out, that move can't be used again. Masamune chose his target well."  
"Grr... Lucky shot," Sophie grudgingly admitted. "Go get him, Cetus!"

White Cetus clashed with Blitz Striker, defense against attack. Striker pressed its advantage, driving defensive type Cetus slowly back. Sophie put out a hand and suddenly her bey stood fir. Try as he might, Masamune's Striker could not budge it.

As this was happening, Gingka and Konzern were having clash after clash. They would disengage from one, each bey would spin in its direction; either left or right, and then clash again halfway around the stadium. "Go go go, Pegasus!" yelled Gingka.

"Gravity Destroyer, fight back with all your power!" Julian called.

Meanwhile, Kai and Klaus's beys were still stuck in their struggle to push each other out of the stadium. Klaus's Capricorn teetered on the edge as Kai's Dranzer backed up to deliver the final death blow that would stop Capricorn. "Dranzer, go now, go hard!" Kai commanded. Dranzer blazed forward in flames of fire, and Klaus looked like he was about to take a loss when he called out his special move.

"Claw of the Storm First!"

Capricorn's form appeared and charged Dranzer, sending it flying backward. Kai frowned. He hadn't planned on that. But there was no time to think about the past, he had to focus on this battle. Klaus was saying, "Claw of the Storm Second!"

"Meet his attack. Dranzer, Blazing Gig!" Kai countered with his own special move, just as Gingka switched Cosmic Pegasus to smash mode.

The two bey forms appeared; the Dranzer phoenix and the Capricorn ibex. They came together in one colossal BANG; the phoenix and ibex grappled with each other until Dranzer miraculously came out on top and flew to the sky with Capricorn in its clutches. Dranzer then descended and flames licked all around them as they plummeted toward the earth.

"No! Capricorn!" cried out Klaus as his bey took a huge hit. It flew out of the stadium and landed on the floor behind him, spinning until it ground to a halt.

"Yay yay!" cried Yu from the sideline. "We're winning three against two!"

Masamune, emboldened by this, attacked Sophie with the help of Kai. "Flash of Lighting!" he called out. Kai just did a regular attack.

"Stand your ground, White Cetus," commanded Sophie. Her bey repelled Masamune's special move, driving him back, but she wasn't prepared for the second attack from Kai. Her bey was sent flying back, but she righted it before there was a stadium out and it took up residence in the center of the stadium once more.

"Let's do it again, Kai! This time you go first and I'll finish her off!" Masamune then waited for Kai to go and called out his special move once more.

Sophie's Cetus repelled the first attack but crumbled under the second once again. Her bey flew high into the air. "Booya!" shouted Masamune, but his victory cry soon turned to anguished loss as Sophie's Cetus came down on top of Blitz Striker, stopping its rotation.

"Nooo! I ruined myself?" Masamune was in shock. As Sophie called out victory, Kai silently commanded his bey to attack, taking Sophie by surprise and knocking her out of the stadium.

"What? I'm out?" Sophie could hardly believe it.

"You let your guard down," Kai said. This was one think that you could never ever do in a bey battle. He then turned to the last one left in the battle: Julian Konzern. Gingka was battering at his defenses, but to no avail. He even tried switching from upper to smash to barrage mode, but it didn't work. Julian's defenses were too good.

Konzern's followers cheered him on, yelling "Konzern! Konzern! Konzern!" as Gravity Destroyer battered Pegasus over and over. Then relief came to Gingka. Dranzer took over the attack, and now Julian was the one being battered.

There is only one way I can win, Julian thought to himself. He had to get back down to one on one. "Special move, Black Excalibur!" he called out. Destroyer rose up and swung its sword directly down on Dranzer. Kai had no time to protect himself. When the smoke cleared, his bey lay at his feet, smoking from the heated battle. Surprisingly, Kai was not sad. He knew he had come a long way, but had no hope of defeating as powerful a blader as Julian. Not unless he upgraded his bey... But right now he needed to do something he usually would not do: Cheer on his surviving teammate.

"Go Gingka!" he yelled along with Masamune and Yu.

Gingka appeared to be fighting a losing battle, though. With every hit, his Pegasus slowed more and more. "Well, Gingka," said Julian. "It looks like this is the end of the line for you. This is as far as you can go!" His voice crescendoed louder and louder. "Special move, Black Excalibur!"

"Do it now, Pegasus! Final drive mode, goooo!" Gingka still had one last card up his sleeve: His own special move. "Cosmic Tornado!" Pegasus neighed and descended on its opponent, obliterating Destroyer with a tornado of power.

"Whoa," said Tyson, his mouth hanging open.

CRASH! Gravity Destroyer was stuck in the floor at Julian's feet. Konzern tugged it free and left without another word; Wales, Klaus, and Sophie following after him.

"Aw man," whined Gingka. "They didn't even stick around to hear my victory speech. I'd been planning this one for a while." Gingka fished around in his pockets and came out with a rolled piece of paper. He held onto an end and let it fall. The other end of the long scroll-like speech rolled away from him. It was one _very_ long speech. "Attention citizens. Since you are hearing this, it means we - I mean _I _- have finally defeated Team Excalibur..."

* * *

"Go now, go hard, Eagle!" Tsubasa's bey training was going well. EERRR! Eagle ground hard against a big evergreen tree in the forests outside of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land. CRACK! The trunk splintered and the tree fell to the ground with a huge THUD!

"Excellent power, Tsubasa," said Rose, who was doing calculations on power, stamina, attack, etc. on a computer she had borrowed from Madoka. "It's been greatly increased since you started your training yesterday."

"Yes," Tsubasa agreed. "But is it enough?" He walked over and picked up Eagle, which had ceased to spin after the effort of knocking down the tree.

"It's never enough," the shadowy figure muttered under his breath so softly that he could barely hear himself. He was high up in the branches of a tree watching, always watching.

"One more time Eagle. Let it rip!" Tsubasa launched Eagle at another tree, which just so happened to be the one that the mysterious watcher was in. Eagle strove hard, and slowly the tree was giving; its trunk was weakening. It was starting to crack under the pressure of the blows. "Keep it up Eagle!" Tsubasa encouraged his bey.

CRACK! The trunk snapped and slowly the tree toppled to the ground.

"Hua!" Just as the tree was about to hit the ground, the shadowy figure leaped to the branches of a tree nearby, expertly keeping his balance.

Tsubasa saw something move out of the corner of his eye, but when he looked closer, there was no one there. "Did you see someone?" he asked Rose.

She shook her head. When Tsubasa really got into the investigation, he found no one; the shadowy figure had vanished once again.

* * *

"Well, we've finally made it," Dashan Wang proclaimed as he walked into the Beyblade Battlegrounds. He caught the tail end of the lengthy victory speech which Gingka had started reading a half hour ago. The rest of Team Wang Hu Zhong walked in behind him, all ready to battle. Their opponents in this second big battle of the day was none other than the Brazilian team; the Garcia siblings. They faced off in a different stadium than the one used by Gan Gan Galaxy and Excalibur; that one had pretty much been totaled.

"3, 2, 1, let it rip!" The eight of them launched their beys, which took up various formations. The Beylin Temple bladers took up solid iron wall positions in the center while the Brazilians circled around them looking for an opening in their defenses.

Suddenly, they attacked at once, but Dashan and company were ready. They repelled the attacks with ease and countered with attacks of their own. "Zurafa, Crushing Blast!"

"Lacerta, Tempestuous Whirlwind Sword!"

"Aquario, Soaring Fire Bird!"

"Virgo, Blue Dragon Whirlwind Sword!"

The Garcias seemed overwhelmed by all these moves until the eldest, Argo, blocked Aquario and Virgo with his Ray Gil's Keel Strangler. That got the Garcias back in the battle, which raged on with a fury.

As this big battle was going on, Gingka's winning streak continued on as he defeated his old rival Hyoma and several other bladers (he had _finally_ finished the victory speech that no one had listened to).

Dashan decided to get out the weakest Garcia, Enzo, and used his Crushing Blast move once more. Out went Enzo's bey, and it was three on four.

"Oh! Look over there!" Selen shouted, pointing behind Mei Mei.

"I won't fall for that!" Mei Mei said. "Aquario, smash her hard, go now!" Selen's bey flew out as well.

As soon as he saw Selen's bey smash out of the stadium, Ian Garcia attacked Mei Mei, but couldn't get her out. Their beys locked in a fierce clash, and soon Cyclone Herculeo seemed to be on the way to a win, but then Chaoxin joined in the attack. Ian decided to draw back and focus his power for one strong hit. He aimed for Aquario, but at the last second, Virgo interfered, taking the blow and ending up in a stadium out. Chaoxin grit his teeth, but knew that he had made a sacrifice for the team.

On and on the battle raged until it was down to the final two: Dashan and Argo. They both fought hard, but Zurafa's Storm Surge ended up defeating Ray Gil's Keel Strangler.

"Yeah Dashan! Whoo hoo!" yelled Gingka from the sidelines. "Can I battle you now?"

Dashan was about to say "yes" when Kyoya announced that it was closing time. "What? Already?" Gingka could never keep track of time when he was bey battling.

"Well, time flies when you're having fun," Nile told him. "Come back tomorrow; it's the last day!"

"Yikes!" shrieked Kenta. He was unprepared. As usual.

"I'll be here at 5 am on the dot," Gingka promised as he waltzed out the door. His winning streak had now lasted two whole days without him taking a loss.

"I wonder if anyone will beat him," Nile said as he closed and locked the doors.

"If no one beats him by noon tomorrow, I'll take him on myself," said Kyoya.

As the two parted ways, neither one of them noticed the dark, shadowy figure on the top of the pyramid, which vanished without a sound.

**Tsubasa: This dark figure is starting to bug me...**

**Rose: I still don't think you saw anything out there, Tsubasa.**

**Kyoya: ATTENTION! xxstarsnow would like to announce that the identity of the dark figure that everyone is curious about will be revealed in the next chapter!**

**Rose: I stand corrected.**

**Tsubasa: Huh. I'll show him!**

**Me: Stay tuned! The chapter will probably be out on next Sunday, cause I'm busy on Saturday yet again.**


	28. Final Preparations

***Sigh.* It sure took me a while to get this chapter out. I'm nearly a week later than when I said I would post. Now I feel really sorry and bad for letting that last cliffhanger um... hang on a cliff so long? So here's chapter 28, a bit longer than usual, so I hope you enjoy. I'll work on un-blocking my brain so I can get the next chapter out next Saturday. Nile, your turn!**

**Nile: xxstarsnowxx does not own Beyblade in any way whatsoever. She also does not own Wal-Mart, in case you're wondering.**

**Tsubasa: Okay, now no more idle chit-chat. I need to figure out who that dark figure is.**

**Nile: Right. On to the story!**

_Chapter 28 Final Preparations_

Beep beep! Beep beep! Gingka's alarm rang at 4:30 am. He needed to get up, have breakfast, and be ready for another day of winning. He leaped out of bed and tiptoed past Ryo's room, not wishing to wake him up.

As usual, by the time he got to the Beyblade Battlegrounds, he was the first one there. After a few minutes, Kyoya came along and opened it up. About a minute later, Nile showed up. He yawned and looked tired. Gingka wandered around aimlessly until 6 am, at which time Kenta and Masamune showed up.

Gingka immediately rushed up to the later and demanded that he borrow his cellphone. Masamune consented, and Gingka hurriedly punched in a number and waited for whoever he was calling to pick up.

"You know, he could have borrowed one of our phones about an hour earlier," Nile said under his breath to Kyoya, who nodded in agreement.

Eventually the person on the other end picked up, and Gingka said, "Hi Tsubasa. You should come to the Beyblade Battlegrounds so we can battle!"

There was a silence. Then Gingka frowned. "Tsubasa, you know that training on your own isn't as effective as training with others.

Silence filled the air once more. "Well in that case, come as a favor for me"... "Okay"... "See ya soon!" Gingka hung up with a smile. "I convinced him to come," he announced happily to everyone present.

Half an hour later, Tsubasa showed up. Gingka immediately finished off the weak bladers he was battling and greeted his friend. "So, are we going to battle, Gingka?" Tsubasa asked him.

Gingka nodded. The two of them set up and let it rip! Off went Eagle and Pegasus. Tsubasa knew that he should attack quickly to drain Pegasus's power, so he called out, "Eagle! Metal Wing Smash!"

Pegasus was buffeted by the blow, but didn't take any real damage. "You're as strong as ever, Gingka," Tsubasa said.

"You too, Tsubasa!" Gingka said back. "But I will claim victory and keep my winning streak going. Go Pegasus!"

Pegasus switched to upper mode and sent Eagle flying. Tsubasa called out "Eagle, Diving Crush!" Eagle cawed and descended claws first toward Pegasus, who reared up and neighed, but took some damage at that attack. "Yes, that's the way, Eagle!" Tsubasa was encouraged by his success.

On and on the battle raged. Tsubasa may have thought he was doing well, but a knowledgeable onlooker would have known better; for all the damage that Pegasus had taken had been from one of Eagle's special moves. The damage Eagle took had been only from normal attacks.

Finally Gingka said, "It's been a great battle, Tsubasa, and I commend you for making me pull out this move, but it all ends here. Pegasus, final drive mode go!"

Before Gingka even called out his special move, Tsubasa said, "I have anticipated this." Suddenly Eagle flew high into the air. "Special move, Shining Tornado Buster!"

"Meet his attack! Cosmic Tornado!" Gingka wasn't about to back down now.

BOOM! The beys met in the air and a huge noise rocketed around the stadium. When the smoke cleared, Eagle lay still on the bottom of the stadium while a still-spinning Pegasus returned to Gingka's hand. "Booya! My winning streak continues!" Gingka then congratulated Tsubasa on the battle and how well he had done. Then, it was time for him to find a new opponent.

* * *

11:45 am rolled around and the Beyblade Battlegrounds was packed. Still, not one of the bladers there had managed to defeat Gingka. Kyoya watched and tapped his foot in anticipation while Nile directed two tag teams to where they would battle. The teams were Bao and Aguma versus Chris and Ryuto. This was sure to be one epic battle. The teams took their places across from each other and prepared for battle.

"3, 2, 1, let it rip!" four beys flew into the stadium and attacked. The four of them met at the center and a giant collision rocked the stadium.

When the beys broke apart, each looking for an opening, Bao called out to his bey, Hades Crown: "Flash attack!" Hades Crown flashed with crimson light and attacked Ryuto's Omega Dragonis, which was pushed back by the power of Bao's attack.

"No! Hold your ground!" Ryuto called out to his bey. Omega Dragonis stood firm under the attack, and then knocked Hades Crown back with a short burst of power.

Meanwhile, Chris's Phantom Orion and Aguma's Scythe Kronos were going at it in a different part of the stadium. Orion was on the attack, battering away at Kronos, but the latter didn't seem to be taking much damage at all. "Now, Kronos! Attack with revenge!" Aguma called out to his bey, which followed his command and beat back against Orion with lightning speed.

"Flash attack, Hades Crown!" Bao was on the move once more.

Ryuto was ready for this, though. He grinned, and suddenly his Omega Dragonis sparked with lightning. At the same time, he appeared to have summoned green lightning into his hands and said, "Dragonis, Hammer Volt!" as he released the lightning into his bey. It met Bao's attack head on and sent Hades Crown flying.

"No! Hades Crown!" Bao's bey managed to stick its landing at the very edge of the stadium. Ryuto appeared to be trying a followup attack, but Bao could not afford that to hit his bey again. His Hades Crown dodged the attack, and this time it was Omega Dragonis teetering on the brink.

By this time, it was noon. Gingka had not yet been defeated, so Kyoya challenged him to a battle. Of course, Gingka accepted. Saying "no" to a bey battle was not in his vocabulary. They set up not for from where the other big battle was going on, and started the countdown.

"3! 2! 1! Let it rip!" Leone and Pegasus entered the stadium. Fang Leone set up in the middle and Cosmic Pegasus circled around, looking for the perfect opportunity to attack Kyoya's Leone. Pegasus charged but was repelled by Leone.

"You're as tough as ever, Kyoya!" Gingka told his opponent.

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Kyoya said. "Roar, Leone!" His bey went on the attack and beat against Pegasus, sending it reeling.

Just when Pegasus tottered on the brink of elimination, Gingka called out, "Hold your ground, Pegasus! Smash mode, go!"

"That won't work on me! True Lion Gale Force Wall!" The strong special move blocked the smash attack of Pegasus.

"Rats!" Gingka was getting frustrated. He and Kyoya hadn't battled in a while, but their rivalry was as strong as ever. "Pegasus, try upper mode!" He figured that maybe he could cut through the bottom of Leone's tornado.

"That won't work! Amp it up, Leone!" Kyoya's bey responded by making the tornado wall even stronger and, unfortunately for Gingka, even more impenetrable.

Finally, after Gingka was nearly bored out of his mind from having to circle the Lion Gale Force Wall too many times to count, Kyoya ended the tornado and went on the attack, forcing Gingka's Pegasus back further and further. "Grr... Retreat and attack, Pegasus!"

Kenta and Yuki stood gaping at the two huge battles going down. Soon, both of them seemed to be nearing their ends. "Dragonis, Hammer Volt!" Ryuto called out his special move once again. Aguma called out his special move, Great Ring of Destruction, Bao used his Crimson Flash attack, and Chris used Barnard's Loop.

Meanwhile, Gingka's Pegasus entered final drive mode and used Cosmic Tornado while Kyoya called out "King Lion Crushing Fang!"

As the beys clashed all at once, a blinding red light filled the pyramid, followed by a BOOM of thunder. "Stop this at once!" a powerful voice commanded. All but the two giant battles stopped immediately. Kyoya, Gingka, and the others didn't want to stop, especially now that all their special moves had been released.

"I said, STOP!" A bey drove Leone and Pegasus back into their bladers' hands and proceeded to do the same thing with all the beys in the other battle.

"Hey, what was that for?" asked Ryuto.

"Yeah, I don't like my battles being interrupted," Kyoya said with a frown. Aguma, Bao, Chris, and Gingka nodded in agreement.

"Aw... Isn't that just so sad," sneered the bey's owner as his bey returned to his hand. "Anyways, what's up with this Plan of yours? Why didn't you warn everyone sooner about their coming doom?"  
Nile answered the question. "Too soon and people would have panicked. Too late and they would still have panicked. We announced when the time was right."

"Well, I'll admit that I _have_ been keeping tabs on 'The Plan,'" the mysterious blader said, stepping out of the shadows. Everyone who hadn't guessed who he was gaped in astonishment.

"Err! So it was _you_, Ryuga. You were the one who was in the woods yesterday," Tsubasa exclaimed. He hadn't stopped wondering who had been watching him the day before and had been rather edgy because of it.

"That's right, Tsubasa," said Ryuga with a smirk. "And your training, all that you have done, will not be sufficient for the coming doom that Zeo Zaggart will bring along with his army.

"Then why are you here? To ridicule us?" Bao asked in an angry voice.

"I have come to... help... you." Ryuga seemed barely able to say the very words he had just spoken.

Everyone looked shocked except for Kyoya and Nile, who seemed to be trying to hide the knowing expressions on their faces. Fortunately for them, Ryuga appeared not to see that as he continued. "Now, I will assign you a task or two or three that you will do in order to bring your training along further."

"Hold on a minute," interrupted Julian Konzern. "How do _you_ know what task will help us?" Then as an afterthought he added, "I don't like being ordered around, you know."

"I've been watching. I know. Julian Konzern, you will be in the elite group of bladers who gets to train with the Dragon Emperor," Ryuga told him. "Consider yourself fortunate. Now, who wants to know what their tasks are?"

"Ooh! Ooh! Me! Me!" shouted Masamune Kadoya, who couldn't help shouting "Number one!" after saying that.

Ryuga frowned at him and said, "You talk too much. Your task is to battle against Yu without talking. At. All."

Masamune was about to protest when Yu butted in. "Ryuga, can I talk?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Ryuga said. "Just make sure Masamune doesn't. And push him to his limit, Yu. I'm counting on you."

Yu looked super happy from that praise and rushed off to battle Masamune, who had to count down in his head. Gingka stepped up next. "What do _I_ do, Ryuga?" he asked eagerly. He seemed to have already forgotten his interrupted battle with Kyoya due to this exciting new development.

"You will also be going with me and the other legendary bladers and some others to do special training. I suppose I should say who all is going with me so that you all know," Ryuga said with a sigh. "Well, I already said all the legendary bladers and Julian, but also Nile, Dashan, Ryuto, Sophie, Wales, Damian, and Bao."

"What? Not me?!" Tsubasa appeared to be upset.

"Oh, I have a very _special_ task for you, Tsubasa," Ryuga said with a somewhat evil-looking grin on his face. Tsubasa looked like he was trying not to be stricken with terror. "Your task is to plant 128 trees."

"What?" Tsubasa wasn't expecting this. "How will that help me?"

"It will help improve your connection with nature, that's what. I saw you knock down 64 trees yesterday. Don't you know that you should plant two trees for every one that you knock down? No? Sad. It's a simple fact." Ryuga then told Tsubasa that he had to get his own trees to plant and told him "good luck" in a tone that implied he thought Tsubasa would fail. Ryuga then proceeded to tell everyone else what their assignments would be. Memorable ones included Ryo having to not be such a jerk and declaring himself "immortal". Also, Jack had to learn not to be quite so... artsy. "It limits your potential," Ryuga told him.

After everyone's training regimen had been decided, Ryuga said, "And don't even think of disobeying, because I'll be watching. All of you."

Tsubasa shuddered. Ryuga still gave him the creeps. Then he headed away, wondering if a local Wal-Mart would give him a deal on all the trees he had to buy.

Ryuga turned back to the bladers he had told would be part of this "elite force" and said "Everybody follow me." Kyoya and Nile glanced at each other, shrugged, and followed him out of the pyramid. All the others followed their lead.

About five steps after the group crossed the threshold of the Beyblade Battlegrounds, the ever-curious Gingka asked a question. "Where are we going?" The silence following the question meant that the Dragon Emperor had deigned not to bother answering. The group would have to find out when they got there.

* About 20 minutes later... *

The group was passing through a thicket of bushes when suddenly Ryuga halted abruptly. "We're here," he announced.

Gingka looked around, puzzled. All he saw were trees, trees, some bushes, and more trees. "I don't see anything."

Ryuga then parted the bushes in front of him and everybody saw a huge clearing. "Here is where we will do our training," he told them. Then he added under his breath, "It's not a volcano, but it'll have to do." He walked into the clearing with all of the legendary bladers and others behind him.

Everyone spread out and did various training exercises. Ryuga quickly conferred with Kyoya and Nile concerning The Plan. Then he did some bey training/battling with his group before heading off to check on the others and make sure they were following his orders.

* Somewhere out in the forests... *

"Phew. One tree planted and... 127 to go..." Tsubasa felt utterly discouraged. This task seemed impossible. Cree! His eagle called out from on top of one of the small trees that he still needed to plant. Cree! Suddenly, an idea sparked in his mind. He pulled out his Earth Eagle and used it to help him dig holes to plant the trees in. Now that work was going faster, he didn't mind the task as much. Except for the fact that all the trees had been costly even though Wal-Mart had given him a huge deal on them.

"Two. Three. Four. Five." Tsubasa placed each tree in the ground and covered the base with dirt. "Thank you, Eagle," he said to his bey, re-launching it. Cree! "Thank you too," he told his eagle, which now soared through the skies freely overhead.

* Back the Beyblade Battlegrounds *

"Ha ha!" laughed Ryo after having defeated yet another blader. "No one can beat me, the Immortal-"

"Ahem," came a voice from the corner. Ryuga stepped out of the shadows. "It seems that you have violated the rules of your assignment. Time to pay up!" Ryuga loaded Ldrago Destructor and faced Ryo across the stadium. The defeated blader crawled out of the way as the Dragon Emperor took his place. "3!"

"2!" Everyone on that floor turned to see Ryo pay for his foolishness (he had said 'Immortal' multiple times by the time Ryuga had appeared and had been... well... a jerk). "1! Let it rip!"

Ldrago flew into the stadium in flames, as did Burn Fireblaze. "I didn't expect you to actually be watching," Ryo admitted. "But now I can beat you at your own game! Go, Burn Fireblaze!" Ryo's bey attacked Ldrago with a vengeance, pushing it back inch by inch. The grinding sound resounded through the pyramid.

"Ha! You call that an attack?" laughed Ryuga. "Push him away, Ldrago!" His bey easily knocked off Ryo's puny and out-of-practice attacks (after all, he spent most of his time doing newscasts, not battling).

"Burn Fireblaze, feel my blazing blader spirit! We will not lose, we will win!" proclaimed Ryo. His bey sped up and once more went on the attack. However, it was thrown back by a powerful (well, not _very_ powerful) attack from Ldrago.

"Give it up. There is no way you can defeat me. Ldrago, end this battle. It is boring me." Ryuga's Ldrago Destructor switched modes, the metal now covering the rubber, and raced toward Burn Fireblaze to deliver the final, crushing blow.

"Dodge it!" Ryo screamed desperately. But he was too slow. Ldrago made contact; a solid hit, and both Ryo and his Burn Fireblaze were tossed backward. Ryo's bey landed in the ground next to its fallen blader and left a divot in the concrete floor.

Everyone burst into cheers, and Tetsuya danced a "crab ballet" in celebration. Ryo decided to end his training, and Ryuga couldn't have cared less. He had other people to check on. Training at the pyramid went back to normal. Somehow, Masamune had managed not to say a word the entire time. What a marvel!

* In the secluded clearing... *

The legendary bladers were having a huge battle at one end while the others had a battle at the other end. Things were starting to get out of hand with the latter group, as Damian was dragging numerous people into Hades.

As for the legendary blader battle, Yuki and Kenta (who considered himself a legendary blader but no one was certain so... yeah) were trying to team up on one person at a time. Their choice victim was Gingka, whom everyone thought to be the strongest (except for a select few).

"Go!" They shouted in unison, attacking Cosmic Pegasus from either side. Then they slid around and attacked at one angle, pinning Pegasus against a tree. "We've got you now!" exclaimed Kenta. Yuki nodded. Their plan was going perfectly.

Then, a green flash knocked their beys away from Gingka's. "You're in my way! Gingka will be _my _opponent," Kyoya told them.

"But we want to battle him," whined Kenta. Yuki didn't dare say a thing. He was still rather scared of Kyoya.

"Too bad," Kyoya said. "Now shoo and don't interfere," he added as his Leone pinned Pegasus back to the tree.

Yuki and Kenta looked at each other helplessly. They didn't want to be dismissed like that, but the fact was that they were the weakest of the legendary bladers. They were about to pitch Sagitario and Anubius against each other when a new bey flew in and rammed into their beys.

Yuki and Kenta looked around frantically, but the other legendary bladers were still engaged in battle: Gingka trying to escape the fangs of Kyoya's Leone, Chris and King were locked in battle, along with Aguma. They also noticed that the others were busy: Konzern was attempting to stop Damian's wild rampage, along with the help of Ryuto, Bao, and some others.

"Whose bey is that, then?" Kenta was now utterly confused.

"Look over here, Kenta! Yuki!" called out a voice to their right.

The two boys turned to see an old friend. "Titi!" they cried in unison. Titi was one of the young legendary bladers who had assisted them in taking down Nemesis.

"I'm glad you're here," said Yuki. But would you mind explaining why you came? Have you heard of our plight?"

Titi nodded. "Yeah, I heard a _huge_ army was coming to attack a town full of super strong bladers called Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land, and that it was in the United States of America and that it was in the state of Vermont. _So_, I used my super skills to find you all!"

"Um... that's all very well, but how did you figure out all that earlier stuff anyways?" asked Kenta.

"Yu had it posted all over Facebook!" giggled Titi.

"What? No I didn't!" Kenta exclaimed.

Titi sighed. "No, not _you_;_ Yu_. Yu Tendo. He posted a status a couple of days ago that said something along the lines of 'OMG OMG! Huge battle going down in a few days. Time to get training! Can't wait!' And as for where it was, well, he has his account settings set so you can see where he posted it."

"Oh!" said Kenta and Yuki collectively. Then they noticed their beys lying at their feet. "Titi!" they yelled. Their friend just laughed.

"Oh! And guess who else is coming?!" Titi looked _really_ excited.

Well, there was only one legendary blader that wasn't present in the town yet. "Dynamis!" shouted Kenta and Yuki at the same time.

Several of the battles in the legendary blader area paused to glance at the three of them. Eyes widened as they saw Titi, and nodded to him. Then they got back to their battles. Titi had fun talking to Kenta and Yuki for the duration of the time.

Meanwhile, the non-legendary blader battle was getting back in control due to the fact that Nile had willingly entered Hades and destroyed it from the inside out with his special move. Damian and Hades Kerbecs were now out of the battle, which continued on. Now that the other bladers had realized how much power Nile had, they were starting to gang up on him. "Flap your wings, Horuseus," he said.

Horuseus sent currents of air at its opponents, knocking many of them back. "Zurafa, Crushing Blast!" Dashan called out. His bey clashed with Nile's and managed to push back Horuseus's solid defenses.

"You'll need more than that to defeat the King of the Sky," Nile told him.

Then in came another blader. "Black Excalibur!" Julian announced.

"Storm Surge!" Dashan made his move at the same time.

"Now you've done it," Nile told them sadly as the forms of Destroyer and Zurafa rose up to defeat his Horuseus. "Horuseus, special move: Mystic Zone!"

When the blinding golden light cleared, Dashan and Konzern had been eliminated, much to their dismay. "No one has survived the Mystic Zone," Nile said. "You cannot expect to attack me all at once and not use my best move to eliminate the two of you. Bad move."

Now it was up to the others that were left, but they were stuck in their own battles: Wales and Sophie vs. Bao and Ryuto. "Time to have some fun!" exclaimed Nile, sending Horuseus into the thick of the fight.

"Aha! It's Nile!" exclaimed Bao. "Flash attack!" His Hades Crown pushed Horuseus back a bit. Then it dove for cover as Sophie and Wales's joint special move crashed waves over their heads.

"Cetus, Grand Decalion!" Ryuto's Omega Dragonis dodged, but Nile had nowhere to go.

"Horuseus, Mystic Zone!" Once again he countered the attack, breaking through the waves and smashing into the two beys with his still-glowing Horuseus. Sophie and Wales were out. Only Ryuto and Bao were left to face Nile.

As this was going on, Dynamis had finally appeared on the legendary blader side of the clearing. By then, the battles had finished. King had knocked over some trees on the edge of the clearing, but then righted them with some help from Chris. Kyoya had fulfilled his life's dream of defeating Gingka, thus ending the winning streak. Gingka had a glazed-eyes look of disbelief about him. Everyone greeted Dynamis and Titi warmly and told them they expected some cool shops after the army was defeated. That went for Aguma as well. Then they watched the end of the other battle.

"Mystic Zone!"

"Hammer Volt!"

"Flash Attack!"

The fury of special moves ended the battle with a big bang. Bao's bey wasn't spinning. Omega Dragonis and Horuseus were barely spinning. Then, Dragonis toppled over, the last of its spin strength sucked up. Nile had won!

* Late that night *

"126, 127, 128. Done," sighed an exhausted Tsubasa. He collapsed on the ground along with his bey.

"Consider me impressed," the dark figure who was Ryuga said when he saw Tsubasa collapsed on the ground with all his trees planted.

**Tsubasa: Really? Planting trees?**

**Ryuga: Yeah, you deserved it for knocking all those others down.**

**Tsubasa: Look who's talking, Ryuga. Haven't you destroyed entire forests?**

**Ryuga (in a thoughtful voice): You're right, Tsubasa. Maybe I should have you replant all those trees for me since you did such a good job on that last batch.**

**Tsubasa: Forget I even asked...**

**Ryuga: I thought so. xxstarsnowxx says to stay tuned. The big battle you've all been waiting for begins next time on Beyblade Town 2: The Return of Zeo Zaggart.**

**Me: And please review! I love them and they're encouraging!**


	29. The Battle Begins

**As the title says, the big battle is at long last about to start! Hooray! But first some funny stories about how people prepare for it.**

**Yu:OMG OMG OMG! I'VE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS FOREVER!**

**Gingka: (_pats him on the head)_ Calm down Yu. Save your energy for the battle.**

**Ryuga: You'll need it.**

**Gingka: Is that supposed to intimidate me? Because it didn't.**

**Ryuga: You'll find out...**

**Me: Hey, can one of you please do the disclaimer?**

**Yu: MEMEMEME! xxstarsnowxx does not own Beyblade or Beyblade Metal Fight in any sort of way.**

_Chapter 29 The Battle Begins_

"Muahahaha!" Zeo Zaggart had greatly improved his evil laugh since he had gone to get his army. All he had done was gotten some tips from .com. It had been of great assistance to him. "Now is the time; we will take revenge on all those bladers in _that town _for humiliating me. And I myself will take on King. Once he is defeated, the whole city will fall."

"We thought it was a town," one of the army members said in a monotone. "Not a city."

"You very well know what I meant," said Zeo Zaggart. "And once their King is dethroned, I will step in and rule the place myself. My first decree will be to re-name the town. And I have the _perfect_ name for it!" Then Zeo and his army began their several-mile march through the woods toward the secluded town known as Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land.

* * *

It was only 8:00 in the morning, but all of King King's town was bustling with activity. They had a big battle to prepare for, after all. Each town member had their own way to prepare, besides readying their beys and launchers, which already hung – shined, polished, and ready – at the hips of their respective bladers. Even Hikaru, who hadn't bladed since her devastating loss in Battle Bladers to Ryuga, had taken out and dusted off her old Storm Aquario and was preparing for battle.

Well, sort of. As of now, she was conferring with Ryo, the latter of whom had an eccentric idea that he could affix lasers to his television tower in order to shoot down the beys of the army. "I don't think that's safe," Hikaru was saying. "It could malfunction and fire at the town's defenders."

"What nonsense!" exclaimed Ryo. "It will do exactly what it's programmed to do. I am the Immortal Phoenix. I know all!"

"Oh yeah? And what does the "Immortal Phoenix" know about programming lasers?" asked Hikaru, air quotes and all. That put Ryo in his place, and there was no longer any talk about lasers.

Ian was hard at work in his ice cream shop. He was in charge of some of the defenses of the town, which included flinging ice cream and maraschino cherries at the invading army. His siblings were helping him, except for Enzo, who was busy making special paper airplanes for deliveries during the battle. He had wanted to use a ton of paper to make a giant bomber plane to attack the army, but that idea had been marked 'improbable' and shot down by Kyoya and Nile.

One other person in charge of defenses was Jack, who was creating a beautiful barricade made out of trees on the south side of town, which ended up looking like (as always) his bey, Befall. "Beautiful, beautiful!" Jack repeated over and over, lovingly staring at his work of art and wringing his hands at the thought of it getting destroyed by an invading army.

Gaser, with the help of the biker gang, was setting up pit-fall traps on the eastern side of the town. They ventured into the thickly wooded area and made sure the traps were well camouflaged. They were so well hidden that Sora accidentally triggered one and fell to the bottom, screaming his head off until Dan and Reiki hoisted him out.

Johannes had created a yacht barrier next to Jack's Befall art. Tsubasa and Rose were setting traps made out of coat hangers around various parts of town, just in case Zeo's army got past the outer wall of defenses. Tobio was setting up sniper traps all over as well. Kyoya and Nile had told everyone to try keeping the fighting outside the actual town itself, as it would be far safer and less of a hassle to clean up/rebuild.

* * *

Tyson was playing video games in Hyoma's Hotel, even though Ray, Max, Hilary, and Kenny had tried to dissuade him, what with the upcoming battle and all. "You need to chose a side," Kai had told them earlier. "This is one fight you cannot remain neutral in. You are either for us or against us. Now decide!" But Kai had not stuck around to hear their answers. There was work to be done; offenses to launch and defenses to prepare. No time to idly chat.

Before long, Ray and the others gave up with Tyson's sudden video game obsession and went out to walk the streets. They all were surprised at how much work was going into this 'protect the town' stuff. "Wow," was all Max could say.

"Hey guys!" Gingka called out to them as he walked by. "Hope you help us cope with the army. No time to chat. Sorry. Bye!"

The Bladebreakers left in his wake just looked stunned. "What?" Kenny asked, but Gingka was now out of earshot.

* * *

Gingka, as a matter of fact, was on his way to Yu's Yo-yos in order to help his friend set up a trap made of Yu's merchandise. Gingka arrived to find that Yu had already almost completed the entangling snare of yo-yos that now encircled his shop.

"Oh, hey Gingki!"said Yu happily. "I'm pretty much done here. How do you like it?"

"It's great, Yu!" Gingka told him enthusiastically, admiring the intricate design Yu had created. "Well, looks like you've got things in hand over here. I'm gonna check on some of the others."

"OK. Bye!"

As Gingka walked along, he was soon joined by Dynamis and Titi. They were just going to help with the bey battling, not the trap setting. Gingka talked to them as they walked along, until he greeted someone else. "Hi Ryuga! What's up? Or should I say, what's down?"

Ryuga said something in reply, but neither Gingka nor his companions could make out what his muffled voice said. They couldn't help but wonder exactly what Ryuga was doing.

A few minutes later, Ryuga was finally able to talk. "I'm rewiring the fountain, what else?"

At first, Gingka was puzzled, but then he realized exactly what that meant: The statue would no longer spit water at him, but rather at the invaders. "That's an ingenious idea, Ryuga!" he bubbled excitedly.

Ryuga ran a hand through his hair. "I try," he commented before going back into his bookstore. Of course, Gingka then had to explain the whole background of the fountain to Dynamis and Titi, who were understandably confused. But halfway through his speech, Bao came running down the street yelling "They're a mile away! All bladers need to come with me! We need to keep them out of the town!"

Gingka, Dynamis, and Titi immediately followed after Bao, who directed them to Ryuto. Bao himself had to go warn all the other bladers in town. Ryuto led those who had assembled: Gingka, Dynamis, Titi, Zeo Abyss, Toby, Jack, Johannes, Selen, Ian, Argo, and some others out of the town and into the thick surrounding woods. The going was slow at first, as the trees were dense and closely packed, but Ryuto expertly led them to where Kyoya, Nile, King, and Kai stood waiting. "We'll wait here until they show themselves in that clearing up ahead," Kyoya told everyone, who nodded and took up positions where they could see into the clearing but not show themselves.

They didn't have long to wait. They soon spotted the tell-tale figure of Zeo Zaggart, along with about 200 bladers in support. However, the main branch of the army was clearly not present. King frowned. He hoped the other bladers had the other areas covered. Otherwise, the town could be in trouble. But their forces couldn't be spread that thin, otherwise... (let's suffice it to say that King's head was spinning).

Zeo Zaggart spotted King right away, a lone figure standing almost like bait in the open. A smile flitted across his face as he pictured the leader of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land, the town that he hated so much, going down into the depths of defeat. He pulled out his new bey, the reborn Cerberus, and issued his challenge. "King, let's settle this here and now. Let it rip!"

King was ready and launched Variares into the clearing. He had set his bey in reverse rotation, just in case Zeo Zaggart posed a serious threat. "Attack at once, Variares! Ares Sword!" cried King, eager to defeat his opponent. "You will regret ever challenging me again, Zaggart!"

Zeo just smirked. "Oh yeah? I think _you're_ the one who's going to be doing the regretting, King." As he spoke, the form of Cerberus rose up and took the full brunt of Ares Sword, continuing to spin.

"What? Impossible!" said King. He then commanded Variares to do a barrage attack, which sent Cerberus reeling, but didn't do much damage.

Zeo Zaggart laughed. "With my new and improved bey, I cannot be beaten by the likes of you, King. You may be a good opponent, but even if this battle ends in a tie, I will still be able to stick around."

"Well don't plan on it," King told him. "I _will_ find a way to defeat you."

"Well, we'll see about that," Zeo said with a smirk. He waved his helpers on, and they all launched their beys into the clearing. Gingka immediately leaped out of the bushes he was hiding behind yelling "Go Pegasus!" and launched his bey into the fray. Kyoya, Nile, and all the other bladers joined in the fight as well. Zeo Zaggart had superior numbers, that was for sure, but they all fought hard. Zeo Abyss and Toby paired up and attacked with their special moves. However, the other bladers they fought used special moves of their own.

It wasn't long before King and the others realized they needed backup and they needed it fast. "Retreat!" King shouted over the noisy din of the massive battle. Kyoya covered their retreat by taking down trees behind them with Leone's King Lion Crushing Fang, creating a barrier. King shuddered as he heard an inhuman screech from Zeo Zaggart coming from behind the fallen trees.

"What should we do, King?" asked Selen. She had been freaked out by how powerful and numerous Zeo Zaggart's army had been, especially when she thought of how few of the entire army that those bladers had been.

"We're so outnumbered." Ian was exhausted, and there was still so much to be done. He looked around at all the other bladers lying still in the grass around him. Even Kyoya, Nile, King, and other legendary bladers in the group were breathing hard and bent over. If this was truly what they were up against, what chance did the outnumbered citizens of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land stand?

"We need to regroup. Back to town, everyone." Nile was somewhat recovered from the helter-skelter retreat. He started trekking back toward town with all the others in tow.

* * *

A few minutes later, they met up with the scattered remnants of other groups. Bao joined back up with them, along with Aguma, Damian, and even Julian Konzern. "Is it really that bad?" Julian asked after glancing at the group that had been forced to retreat.

"Yes. This sure won't be a piece of cake," Kyoya noted. "You should go find us more support, Julian. We need all the help we can get."

"Just a minute! Hold on! Wait!" Enzo Garcia came running onto the scene. "I can message people with my paper airplanes. Help will soon be on the way!"

Somehow, the planes actually worked. More bladers were summoned, and Kyoya led the group out once again to attack Zeo Zaggart's army. That part of the army had almost made it into town, and needed to be driven back. The biker gang volunteered to patrol the roads and fend off any individuals and warn of groups, so King felt safe leaving his town in... good?... hands.

With their new-found support, King, Kyoya, and Nile led their fellow bladers on to... victory? It was more of a somewhat organized retreat on the part of Zeo Zaggart and his army. Thanks to Damian, many members of the enemy forces had been terrified of their forced journey into Hades and fled. Julian Konzern's special move took its toll, as did the joint special move of the Cetus beys, Scythe Kronos's Great Ring of Destruction, Pegasus's Cosmic Tornado, Leone's King Lion Crushing Fang, Horuseus's Mystic Zone, Variares's Sword of Ares, and even more.

"Great job everyone!" King congratulated his team. "We did great out there, even if it wasn't a complete sweep. Things are looking much brighter already!"

Everyone cheered. Then, a paper airplane fluttered to the ground at Kai's feet. He picked it up and read its contents with a grim expression on his face. Then he passed it over to King, whose smiling face soon looked grim once again. He decided that this was news that had to be shared, even if it cut into the cheerful mood.

"Attention everyone. We have just been contacted by Dashan Wang. As you know, he is leading another group of bladers on the western side of town. He and his team have been forced to retreat, and say that the bladers they battle are merciless and seem to feel no pain. He says that they need our assistance immediately. The invaders have almost reached the town. So as much as I know we'd all like to party, we have a job to do. Are you all with me?" King had always been great at giving speeches.

Everyone cheered once again, but it was less excited than it had been earlier. They took a shortcut around the edge of town. This way was also handy due to the fact that it provided sufficient cover from the prying eyes of possible spies from the enemy. They soon met up with Dashan, but realized something was wrong.

"They – they all left," Dashan told King in disbelief. "Why?"

It was meant to be rhetorical until Titi, who had climbed high into the trees above, shouted "Look!" Of course, no one could, due to the leafy foliage, so everyone rushed the few hundred yards through the woods into town, where they could clearly see beyond the buildings to the southern part of town. The trees beyond it were burning, a raging inferno of flames: A forest fire.

**Me: I'll be sure to update next weekend pronto! **

**King: Good.**

**Gingka: I think I understand what Ryuga was saying up top before the disclaimer now...**

**King: Good.**

**Me: Oh, and thanks to everyone who reviews my story. We're up to 54 reviews! Thanks so much. And to DragonThunder: I'm really sorry about that cliffhanger, and I really appreciate your funny reviews. They always make me laugh! And now someone would like to talk about last chapter. I think...**

…

…

**Ryuga: Yep, I'm here. I'm also the dark figure. Perhaps some of you could have guessed it by the fact that the dark figure disappeared in the chapters that I was gone during, and then reappeared after I came back from the Boston Marathon. But yeah, it would have been pretty hard. Even xxstarsnowxx's sister couldn't figure it out. Um... can I be done explaining now?**

**Me:Yeah. Gotta go do my exercise now so I can play Wii later. Over and out, bye!**


	30. OK, How Did The Fire Start?

**Hey everyone! I'm back with another chapter! Oh, and I do have some corrections to do, now that I've seen the newest anime episodes of Metal Fury. Dunamis is being called Dynamis, so I, being the nit-picky person that I am, vow to change his name in order to stick to the anime. But enough with this intro. Let's get to the story, after this brief disclaimer and recap. Dynamis?**

**Dynamis: xxstarsnowxx does not own Beyblade the original series or Beyblade Metal Fight in any way.**

**Blader DJ: Last time, on Beyblade Town 2: The Return of Zeo Zaggart... Dashan Wang has contacted Kyoya with some important news about the enemy, and Kyoya quickly rallies his group to find out what is the matter. When the arrive at the scene, however, the army of the town's enemy is nowhere to be found. Just when it seems that nothing worse could possibly happen, Titi spots a huge forest fire that threatens to destroy the entire town. What will King do next?**

_Chapter 30 OK, How Did The Fire Start?_

"No!" shrieked Jack, thinking of his beautiful Befall barrier, which had most likely gone up in flames.

"Is this part of The Plan?" asked Dynamis.

Kyoya shook his head. "The Plan doesn't say anything past the numbers of Zeo Zaggart's army. As of now, we're in the unknown."

"Zeo Zaggart clearly wants to destroy my town," King pointed out. "What better way than to burn it to the ground?" he added bitterly, gazing at the raging inferno.

"Then his army must have retreated knowing their work here was done, right?" asked Dashan.

Everyone nodded sullenly and moped around, staring in utter shock and disbelief at the wall of flames on the far side of town when Gingka piped up. "Well, aren't we going to save the town, fool Zeo's plan, and put out the fire?" he asked.

"We can try," someone said doubtfully.

"Why bother?" asked another.

"I say let's give it a shot!" shouted Gingka. His enthusiasm was contagious and he soon had most everyone believing in themselves. Sophie and Wales were fully prepared to take on the wall of fire with their joint special move's wall of water.

"Now if only we could find Hikaru," mused Kyoya.

_*Flashback *_

"Um... Director, why are we out in the woods again?" Hikaru asked.

"To fight Zeo Zaggart's army, of course!" Ryo Hagane said.

"But there's no one here," said Hikaru. "I'm starting to think that this so-called expedition is more eccentric than your ideas of affixing lasers to your television tower."

"Why of course not, Hikaru! We will be the saviors of the town. Everyone will bow before us and call us Immortal Phoe-"

"Ryo!" she cut in sharply. "We do this for the good of the town, not for self-glorification."

"Of course," Ryo said. He seemed to like using that phrase. He marched on, leaving Hikaru to decide for herself whether or not to follow along in his wake.

She hesitated for a moment, and then ran after the Director, deciding that he probably needed to be watched, and who better than her. But after about an hour of wandering aimlessly along after him, she wondered if he hadn't picked the right spot for the army members to be after all. "They obviously aren't here," she said, voicing her opinion.

"Oh yes they are. They're right behind this tree!" Ryo exclaimed, pointing to a particularly large pin ahead of them.

Hikaru rolled her eyes. "No they're not, and I'll prove it." She walked over to the tree and looked behind it. Sure enough, no one was there. She turned back to Ryo. "See, what did I tell you?"

"They _are_ there!" he insisted.

Hikaru was about to roll her eyes yet again when a new voice cut in. "He's right. We _are_ here." A random person that Hikaru and Ryo had never seen before emerged from the foliage. Hikaru assumed that he was an enemy blader and readied her Storm Aquario for battle. Ryo followed suit with his Burn Fireblaze.

"It may have been a while since I've battled, but it's two against one. You're outnumbered," Hikaru told the enemy, who proceeded to ready his own bey.

"That is where you are mistaken." The blader made a small gesture and suddenly hundreds of bladers appeared. "Now who's outnumbered? Let it rip!"

"I guess we have no choice. Go Aquario! Let it rip!" cried Hikaru. Ryo launched his bey, which slashed in a circle making a path.

"Go Hikaru! Run and get help!" Ryo told her.

"But what about you?"

"I'll follow after you. Don't worry, the Immortal Phoenix cannot die!"

Hikaru was rather unwilling to leave him, but realized that they desperately needed backup. So off she raced through the woods with branches whipping her in the face and across her body, but she pressed on even though she really didn't know where she was going. She just hoped somebody (somebody on HER side) would cross her path soon.

"Oof!" She ran straight into someone, slipped on some pine needles, and fell on the ground. "Hey, watch where you're-" Hikaru cut off in mid sentence, gasped and moved further away from that someone.

"What are _you_ doing here, Hikaru? I thought you had quit blading," said the person Hikaru had run into, who happened to be Ryuga.

"R-Ryuga." Hikaru was still terrified of him. But she had to face her fear; the army had to be defeated. "The army is attacking. Ryo and I were caught off guard. Please, you need to help us."

"Why do you think I'm out in the woods? For the scenery? I came to defeat Zeo's army because I find that guy to be a nuisance. I suggest that you and your friends leave. Things are going to get messy." Then, without another word, Ryuga headed deeper into the woods, leaving Hikaru trembling on the ground. That is, until Ryo came running in.

"I managed to get away, but we'd better hurry. They could catch us any minute!"

"I think we're safe," Hikaru told him. "But we need to get out of here."

"Then we're not safe," said Ryo.

Hikaru sighed, but began running. Once she made it safely into town along with Ryo, she turned back, squinted, but saw nothing. Then, something in the sky caught her attention. The form of Ldrago Destructor was flying higher and higher until it vanished from view. A few seconds later, it reappeared and dove into the forest below. Following it was a meteor shower! The flaming meteors crashed to the earth, and soon the forest was ablaze. Hikaru gasped. Had Ryuga killed the entire army? She needed to find some others before this fire got out of control. Ryo had randomly vanished, so she was left on her own to work things out.

_* End of Flashback *_

Kyoya was leading the others toward the fire when they ran into the very person he had withed to find: Hikaru. "Thank goodness I found you all," she panted. "We need to put that fire out and fast!"

"That's why we came," King told her, stepping to the front of the crowd. "We're here to stop Zeo Zaggart from burning down my, I mean _our_, lovely town!"

"Zeo?" asked Hikaru. She suddenly started to laugh, and couldn't help herself. "_He_ didn't start the fire, oh no. I saw with my own two eyes who started it."

King couldn't stand the suspense any longer. "Who?" he cried out.

"It was Ryuga," Hikaru told everyone.

Immediately, everyone started talking, but Gingka spoke above the others. "Why would Ryuga want to destroy the town? He must have had a good reason to start the fire. Everybody, listen to Hikaru!"

"While he _did _start the fire, I think he did it to stop the army from getting into town." Hikaru then launched into her story about running into the army along with Ryo, who was still MIA.

When she finished, Nile was the first to break the stunned silence. "So... you think Ryuga killed all those people in the army? Isn't it possible they escaped; that he just scared them away?"

Hikaru pondered the possibility. "I guess so."

"Then let's stop talking and put out that fire," Kyoya said sharply.

Everyone walked a bit further; from where they were now standing, they could feel the heat from the flames but not be in any danger. "Let it rip!" yelled Sophie, Wales, and Hikaru.

"Whirl now, White Cetus," said Sophie. Then Wales chimed in: "Joint special move, Cetus Grand Decalion!"

"Aquario, Infinite Assault!" called Hikaru. The waves joined together and sped toward the flames, towering over the trees. A good chunk of the forest fire was extinguished by all three water moves, but there was plenty more work to be done. The three kept repeating their moves and slowly but surely the town was being saved.

Demure, with his sharp eyesight, noticed that the other side of the forest fire was being extinguished as well. Some others must be helping them! When the last ember of the fire finally died about an hour later, they figured out just who that some_one_ was.

"I knew you weren't evil, Ryuga!" Gingka exclaimed with a smile. "You may have started the fire, but you helped put it out!" Gingka ran over to give him a hug, but Ryuga held him off with one hand while talking to the others.

"Let's see if I got rid of those things in that nuisance of an army," he told them. He walked toward the forest, dragging Gingka along behind him (it was Gingka's fault for clinging). Everyone else decided to follow.

Ryuga led them into the heart of the burned part of the forest, where they came upon lumps of charred, melted metal. "How did that get there?" someone asked out loud.

As Kai looked around, an odd, familiar feeling was twisting around in him. Kinda like this was deja vu or something. A voice broke through his thoughts. "Did they all escape?" someone had asked.

Slowly, Kai shook his head. "No, the fire finished them off," he said, pointing toward some piles of melted metal.

"So you're saying..." Hikaru didn't finish her sentence.

"That's right. Those so-called people you battled were not human after all. They were robots," Ryuga told everyone. "It's a good thing I came along when I did, or they would have overrun the town."

"So that's what Dashan meant!" said Kyoya. "Those bladers who seemed to feel no pain must have been another bunch of robots."

"But those bladers _we_ battled were human. They were scared of my Hades Kerbecs," pointed out Damian, rather smugly at that.. "Those robots wouldn't have been afraid."

Ryuga's only comment was something along the lines of "Oh great, more robots for me to destroy," in a sarcastic tone.

"Whoa! An army of robots!" Gingka sounded more excited than scared.

"But not _all_ robots," Nile felt obligated to point out.

Others added in to the conversation as well, which got more and more pointless as time went along. With all this senseless talking going on, King was getting annoyed that almost everyone had lost sight of the goal: Saving the town. Speaking of losing sight of to goal, they had lost sight of the town! King hurried back along the path they had created and ran into town. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw members of the human portion of Zeo Zaggart's army snooping around town.

"Not on my watch!" King shouted, launching his bey at the intruders, who responded with attacks of their own. King's furious offenses were aided by Kyoya, Nile, Kai and some others, who had noticed King leave and understood why.

When the rest of the big group caught up with King and the others, it was nearly night time. The streetlamps of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land came on just as the biker gang roared up to the scene. "We got rid of the rest of the army and sent Sora and Reji to make sure they're gone," Busujima told King.

King nodded and was about to speak, but got interrupted by Sora and Reji, who also arrived. "The army is setting up tents. It seems they won't attack until dawn," Sora announced.

"Sssssssssssssssss," hissed Reji.

Gingka yawned. "I guess we should all get to bed as well. It's been a loooooong day." Without waiting for agreement, he headed off to his home. Everyone else followed his lead, with Kyoya telling everyone to meet outside the Beyblade Battlegrounds the next morning ASAP.

"I'm not getting up until it's noon," Yuki said to Titi, who was standing next to him.

"I'm always an early riser," Titi responded. "By the way, have you seen Kenta at all today? 'Cause I haven't."

"Hmm. Now that you mention it, no, I haven't."

"Oh well. He's probably already gone home and we just missed seeing him," Titi concluded. "And now it's time for us to get some rest as well. Night, Yuki."

Yuki waved goodby and left. The place everyone had gathered in quickly was deserted and peacefully night fell upon the town.

**Ryuga: Ha! That army doesn't stand a chance. Not when they try to wage war against the town inhabited by the one and only Dragon Emperor! Muahahaha!**

**Gingka: *muttering* so full of himself...**

**Ryuga: Don't think I didn't here that, Gingka. Not still upset about losing to Kyoya, are you?**

…

**Ryuga: I thought so.**

**Me: I'm so sorry that I have some sad news. I HAVE WRITER'S BLOCK! It's getting so hard to write. I think I'll be able to post another chapter on my own imagination, but in order to make this battle a reasonable length, I am now up for ideas from my ever-so-faithful reviewers. Please please please help me out if you can! Just any idea would be greatly appreciated.**

**And to DragonThunder: Thanks so much for your review! You know I greatly appreciate them. And the idea you had on how to put out the fire was ingenious, but I didn't use it because I already had planned on Sophie, Wales, and Hikaru working together, as Hikaru was an instrumental character in this chapter. **

**To everyone: Thanks for reading my story and keep up the great, amazing reviews!**


	31. Oh Where Oh Where Is Kenta?

**Hey everybody! Thanks for the reviews! Now I've got some great ideas. They'll come into play in the next chapter. This one sets the stage. So now... Nile?**

**Nile: xxstarsnowxx does not own Beyblade Metal Fight or Beyblade in any way.**

**Me: Thanks! Now- **

**Kyoya: Hey Nile. Sorry about yelling at you.**

**Nile: Huh?**

**Kyoya: You know. Episode 22. Metal Fury.**

**Nile: Oh. That. It's okay. Although I'm not quite sure why you got so mad...**

**...**

_Chapter 31 Oh Where Oh Where Is Kenta?_

Not everyone in the town had gotten up early. In fact, hardly anyone had. Most of the townspeople had gathered outside the Beyblade Battlegrounds by 9 am, but there were definitely people missing, including prominent citizens such as Ryo, Yuki, Kenta, and even Ryuga.

"Where could they be?" the ever-curious Gingka asked.

Everyone around him shrugged. "How should we know?" stated Dashan.

Suddenly, Ryo came running up. "What did I miss, guys?"

"_Everything_," Gingka told him. "And you're late. _I've_ been here since 8:59, and it's now 9:01."

"Ah, so what? I'm only a minute late," Ryo said to his son. Needless to say, this sparked a long, tedious, and rather annoying argument which the assemblage of citizens decided to ignore.

Tsubasa took this opportunity to start whispering his plan to Rose and Yu. It had something to do with trees and forest fires and Ryuga. Damian was still psyched about yesterday and all the bladers he had dragged into Hades and defeated. Jack was ecstatic that his Befall art had withstood the forest fire. Apparently he had forgotten that he had covered it with some sort of flame-retardant paint. Kyoya was frowning at the general going-ons in the town and tapping his foot impatiently, annoyed that Gingka and his father had started up all this ruckus. It was taking a while for everyone to come to attention, and Kyoya found his already limited patience close to its breaking point. The only thing keeping him from snapping was probably Nile, whose ever-so-patient demeanor seemed to be keeping him calm. But it was only time before-

"Everybody shut up!" **(A/N: I **_**knew **_**that was coming!)**

The crowd came to attention at once as the proud figure of Julian Konzern mounted the steps of the Beyblade Battlegrounds, which was serving as the platform that Kyoya and Nile stood on. Surprisingly the town leader, King, and also Kai were missing from the scene as well.

"We need to stop chattering away like squirrels-"

"But I like squirrels!" complained Gingka. Madoka glared him into silence.

Julian continued, "and get to business!" There was a stunned silence.

Kyoya decided to take advantage of this opportunity to address the crowd. "As King is currently missing, Nile and I will be taking a group of bladers to guard the north and east sides of the town. Julian and everyone else will watch the south and west. Is everyone ready?"

There was some muttering among the crowd about several people still missing (*cough* Yuki, Kenta, & Ryuga *cough*). Then Enzo piped up, "We're all ready to take on the army!" he called out, looking around him. "Amazing, huh? Amazing!"

So finally, after everyone was organized into their groups, they headed out and took up their positions. It wasn't long before a member of Julian's group spotted an uninvited guest. "45 ½ degrees to your right!" Aleksey called out to his fellow teammates, who understood his scientific lingo. They all launched their beys with an air of precise practice, and out popped the enemy, its cover blown.

Soon, all of Julian's group was attacking the hundred-odd bladers that had been discovered. All except for one person, who had set off on his own mission: Dynamis. He had seen in the stars last night the location where Zeo Zaggart would be, and decided to take matters into his own hands. He had seen the battle Zeo had had with King the other day and knew just how powerful he was. So powerful that even the Legendary Blader of Mars could not defeat him. King had held his ground, but the battle had never been finished.

Now it was the turn of the Legendary Blader of Jupiter and his bey, Jade Jupiter. All was in order as Dynamis approached the space where he knew Zeo would be. But just as he was about to step out and confront the enemy, another person beat him to it.

* * *

Meanwhile, back with Kyoya and Nile's group, there was no action at all. Gingka, who everybody was now referring to as 'the bored one' was amusing himself by telling knock-knock jokes to everyone in sight. His most resent one was being told to Yu.

"Knock knock."

"Who's there?"

"ADHD kid."

"ADHD kid who?"

"Oh look! Is that a butterfly?" Gingka finished, pointing to a random space as Yu keeled over laughing.

Bao, who was present nearby muttered, "It wasn't even that funny." But then he saw movement in the direction that Gingka had randomly pointed. Bao looked closer and realized that it was part of the army! "Attack!" he cried out, sending Hades Crown in the direction of the army. It smashed through the bushes that were hiding the army and brought them into the light.

Seeing that they were exposed now, the army fought back. By now, the noise had attracted the other members of the group. A tornado wall soon signified that Kyoya had entered the battle, and a piercing noise meant that Yu had unleashed Libra's Inferno Blast. Gingka was creating havoc by smashing his attack-type Pegasus about randomly so that his opponents had no way to tell which way he would attack next. "Yes! Yes! Keep it up everyone!" he shouted.

Hearing Gingka's outburst, many bladers took it up another notch; at least, that's what Kyoya thought according to the now-even-louder Inferno Blast. The group was doing good work; now the bladers they were battling began backing up further and further. It won't be long now before they have to call a retreat, thought Kyoya.

* * *

"Zeo Zaggart, I will fight you!" Dynamis heard the person say. "If I win, you must leave, okay?"

"Whatever, squirt." Zeo's voice took on a condescending tone. "Cerberus and I will crush you in less than a minute, mark my words."

"No, this can't be right," Dynamis said to himself. "The stars prophesied that _I_ would fight this battle." He watched the two bladers prepare for battle, and then rushed into the clearing, stepping in front of the one who had challenged Zaggart. "Stand down, Kenta. I will be the one to fight this battle, just as was foretold by the stars."

"O-okay," muttered Kenta, standing down to the wielder of Jade Jupiter and the Guardian of Mist Mountain.

"Let it rip!" yelled Zeo once his opponent was ready. Cerberus and Jupiter met in a strong clash. Dynamis' bey sent reeling by the force of the attack. "Huh. You pose no threat," Zaggart said scornfully. "Attack, Cerberus!"

Once again, Jupiter was sent back, decreasing in spin-strength already. By now, Zeo's Cerberus was in full-out, all-power mode, systematically smashing Jade Jupiter into the side of a rock. "One more hit will do the trick," Zeo announced, his Cerberus backing up to deliver the final blow. It struck Jupiter with precision, sending it flying straight toward another giant rock.

Now Dynamis made his move as his bey landed. "Jupiter! Satellite Move!" The metal balls in his bey's fusion wheel moved inward, increasing Jupiter's spin speed. The battle would continue on.

"What? How is that possible?" shouted an enraged Zeo Zaggart.

"It all makes sense," Dynamis said. "You threatened a town full of world-class bladers; how could you expect to come away with a victory?"

"That didn't answer my question!" screamed a now-even-more-frustrated Zeo. He poured all his anger and hatred into his bey, making it super-charged, and attacked Jade Jupiter with a vengance.

Dynamis wasn't worried; his Satellite Move could help him survive virtually any attack. Kenta was watching the battle rather sullenly from the sidelines, as he had wanted to be the one to defeat Zeo. That was why he had disappeared and gone off on his own. He had beaten everyone to the spot in order to challenge Zaggart just to have his chance stolen from him by the Guardian of Mist Mountain. If only I hadn't gotten lost on the way here, thought Kenta. He thought back to how he had wandered in circles until realizing (about 20 minutes later) that he had been past the same crooked tree approximately ten times. That had been his first of many clues that led him to the realization that he was indeed lost. He just wished he had gotten un-lost sooner. Then it could be him out there instead of Dynamis.

Kenta's frown deepened each time Jade Jupiter sped up. Was there any way for Dynamis to lose? Zeo Zaggart seemed to be thinking along the same lines. The drawn-out battle had gone on and on and on and on and on... It was now evening and getting dark.

"Grr... This fight has gone on far long enough!" yelled Zeo. His Cerberus became even more super-charged and sped toward Jupiter. It flung it into the air, but then instead of waiting for it to land, Cerberus charged once again and caught Jupiter while it was still in the air, rendering the Satellite Move ineffective. Cerberus pushed Jupiter higher and higher into the air. Zeo laughed, certain of victory.

Then, Dynamis made his move. "Jupiter, special move, Grand Lightning!"

Zeo frowned at this minor change of events. Jupiter's special move wouldn't have the power it usually did, but Zeo would need to use a special move of his own in order to make victory certain. Pity he couldn't save them for the final battle: Him vs. King. "You leave me no choice. Cerberus, special move, Hades Flames!"

Dark flames shot up from Zeo's bey, rushing upward toward the lightning. The two met in the middle with a huge BANG! Both bladers fell to their knees, their special moves draining the last of their energy. A breathless Kenta was the only one to see both bladers and their beys fall at the same time. The battle had ended in a tie. All of Zeo's followers had left at their leader's command, so Zeo was left on the ground. Kenta thought about dragging Dynamis along back to town, but thought better of it. He resigned himself to wait until Dynamis awoke. After all, if he moved, he could get lost. Again!

So Kenta sat there, and sat there, and sat there. The moon rose and some night crickets began chirping. Dynamis and Zeo had not stirred. Just as Kenta was about to nod off, a familiar person stepped into the moonlight.

"Kenta? Is that you?

Kenta jerked awake (not that he had been _completely_ asleep) and searched for where the voice was coming from.

The owner of the voice didn't have time to play games, though. "I'm over here, Kenta," he said as Kenta did a 180.

"Oh! It's you, King!" cried Kenta joyfully. "Can you maybe help me get Dynamis back into town? I didn't trust myself to do it alone."

"Yeah, sure," said King. "By the way, do you know where Zeo Zaggart is?"

"Uh huh. He's right over there," Kenta said, pointing to the spot where Zeo had been lying. Key words: HAD been lying. Zeo had vanished along with Cerberus, leaving Kenta and King to help Dynamis back into town. After dropping him off at Hikaru's Hospital, they each headed to their own homes to get some sleep.

By morning, the tale of the ill-fated battle between Dynamis and Zeo which had ended in a tie had spread like wild-fire (or a forest fire?) through town.

**Well, I hope you enjoyed it!**

**Dynamis: What!? I did NOT just almost lose to Zaggart!**

**Me: Well you did, but don't feel too bad. He got WAAAAAY stronger than before. Which is why my manevolent mind is now cooking up an evil plot on how to make him leave and never come back! Muahahaha!**

**Zeo Zaggart: You need to go to that evil laugh website that I went to, xxstarsnowxx.**

**Me: AUGH! HOW DID YOU GET HERE!**

**Zeo Zaggart: Never mind how I got here. *pulls out a notebook and a pen* Okay, I'm ready. Tell me about this plot of yours.**

**Me: NEVER!**

**Zeo Abyss: As if she'd tell you. *whispering to xxstarsnowxx* let's get out of here. **

**Me: Okay. Bye! Oh, and my next chapter may or may not be out in exactly a week. But you can expect one soon after! Adios!**


	32. New Instructions For The Robots

**Oh man! So sorry it took me so long to update, but here is the long-promised chapter. Thanks to all you lovely reviewers out there, for your input and your patience. I got ideas for this chapter from azure blue espeon and SkylarkOfTheMoon. Thanks you two! And now, Tyson?**

**Tyson: Ooh! I get to do the disclaimer?**

**Me: Right. Now do it.**

**Tyson: xxstarsnowxx does not own Beyblade or Beyblade Metal Fight in any way. Now can I have some food?**

_Chapter 32 New Instructions For The Robots_

The next morning, the Bladebreakers met downstairs in the hotel lobby for their usual continental breakfast. Everything was normal except for the fact the Kai had decided to join them this once.

"Kai? What are you doing here?" asked Max. Their group had kinda split up since Kai had started training with Kyoya and Nile.

Kai sat down. "I came to ask if you and the others have changed your minds about this whole Zeo Zaggart battle."

Ray's mind was racing. He had heard the news about the big battle the day before, in which no clear winner had been decided. Zeo Zaggart had fled, and Dynamis was currently in Hikaru's Hospital. "You want us to help you fight or something? Lend you some bey power?"

Surprisingly, Kai shook his head. "No. No, that's not it." He poked at his plate of blueberry pancakes.

Hilary walked up with some cereal in a bowl and a glass of orange juice. "Well then, what do you want us to do?"

"Some investigation," Kai said. He was about to add details when a tardy Tyson walked up.

"What kind of investigation?" he asked, knowing full well that the question annoyed Hilary, who was sick of him walking in late on conversations and barging in. But he just _had_ to grab that giant stack of freshly fried eggs that had been put out. He was starving!

"I think that we should all investigate this whole robot army business," said Kai. "If we can find where the robots are being made, infiltrate the place, and reprogram the robots, Zeo Zaggart won't have his insto-army any longer."

Kenny nodded. After all, who was to say that Zeo couldn't just keep having 'bots built and shipped over to fight relentlessly against Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land? Even with world-class bladers, the town wouldn't hold up long. Kenny noticed everyone staring at him funny and realized he had been thinking out loud. "Oops..." he muttered.

"No no! You're on to something!" exclaimed Tyson. "I'm totally in now. So what if Zeo is an old friend? We have plenty of new friends right here in town. Besides, all they did was name the town against him. That doesn't exactly mean a full-out army invasion of retaliation is necessary."

"Wow Tyson. I don't think I've heard you use that many big words in a sentence before," Hilary said. She smirked at Tyson, who was glaring at her. Ah, sweet revenge!

So it's decided then," said Kai, getting the conversation back on track. "We'll meet in the lobby in an hour."

"An hour?! I need that long to finish my breakfast!" Tyson exclaimed, quickly shoveling down his first helping and going back for seconds. Hilary, Max, Ray, and Kenny all laughed. A small smile graced Kai's lips before it vanished back into his usual, straight-faced expression.

* * *

_A foggy haze filled the meadow. White mist carpeted the green grass. Everything was calm, __serene, "Beautiful," he whispered softly, the gentle breeze carrying his words across the plain. Everything was still; picture perfect. But then the gentle breeze turned into a gusty gale. The mist was scattered. Perfection shattered. And then came the weird part..._

_"La la la!" sang Masamune. "Wakey wakey! Time to get up!" The spiky-haired boy was spinning around the meadow. It was like a scene out of _The Sound of Music. The dreamer woke from his vision and discovered himself in a small, unfamiliar room. After a moment of panic, he recalled what had happened. And then he saw the very person he had just dreamed about oh so randomly: Masamune.

"Hey! Waz up?" the aforementioned person queried annoyingly.

"Um... obviously nothing much. But why exactly are you here?"

"Well, the big battle's still going on and all, you know. King told me to come here and check up on you. If you're ready to fight, it's time to go!" Masamune turned toward the door. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a battle to catch. Adios, amigo!" Masamune pulled out Striker and launched it into the hallway along with shouts of, "Striker, olé!"

A huge crash sounded in the hallway, followed by something that sounded suspiciously like broken glass falling to the floor. Then in walked Hikaru. "Oh, Dynamis, you're awake!" she said. "Sorry about all that ruckus out there, but you know Masamune... always off in a hurry..."

As if confirming her statement, Dynamis heard the telltale voice of Kadoya off in the distance yelling "Wait up Gingka! You can't leave without the Number One blader!"

Hikaru sighed and looked out at the hallway. What a mess she had to clean up. Leave it to Masamune to randomly jump out a window instead of using a door like a normal person. She turned back to address Dynamis, but the Guardian of Mist Mountain had vanished along with his bey and launcher, which had been lying on a table by his hospital bed. Hikaru sighed yet again and went to grab her own bey and launcher, leaving several non-blader-part-time-workers to clean up the shards of broken glass.

* * *

"So, if my calculations are correct, we're headed in the right direction."

"Great work Chief!" said Tyson, slapping Kenny on the back and nearly making him stumble into a nearby thorn bush. The Bladebreakers and Hilary were on their way to the supposedly secret robo-factory that produced the 'bots Zeo Zaggart had under his command. They had gotten deep into the forest by riding in the back of Ray's friend Joe's pickup truck. Joe had been rather helpful, and they greatly appreciated his aiding them on their super-secret mission. They had told no one what they were out to accomplish except Joe. But little did they know that they had a follower...

* * *

Once at the robo-factory (Kenny _had_ calculated correctly), they decided to split into pairs. Or more accurately, _Tyson_ decided they should split into pairs. "Okay," he whispered. "I'll go with Ray, Max will go with Kenny, and that leaves Hilary with Kai. Over and out. Roger!" Tyson dove and rolled behind a machine for cover. Ray rolled his eyes at Tyson's theatrics, but followed along after him. Max and Kenny were hunched over the laptop that Kenny took everywhere, trying to decipher which room of the factory did what, and why exactly it was so low-security inside. It did seem rather suspicious...

Which left Kai and Hilary to sneak around in the opposite direction of Tyson and Ray. "I'm not exactly sure what Tyson wants us to do," Hilary admitted. "What do you think, Kai?"

Kai was silent for a moment, but then replied. "Who knows what Tyson wants. I say we just do what Kenny suggested and try to reprogram one of the robots. Kai silently headed toward a completed robot and began examining it.

After a few seconds, Hilary came over with a toolbox. "I found it lying around. It may come in handy."

Kai nodded. Then he began looking for weaknesses in the structure of the robot until he was interrupted by the most dreadful banging noise. It seemed Tyson had a different take on what to do. He was smashing robots with a sledgehammer and having fun doing it.

"Tyson!" hissed Ray. "That could set off an alarm or something!"

EEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRR! EEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRR! EEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRR! "Run for cover!" screamed Kenny at the same time Ray yelled, "Vacate the building!" Everyone ran in every-which-way as total panic and chaos ensued. Kenny hid under a random steel table, Ray did indeed leave the building, followed by Tyson, Kai, and Hilary, as Max took cover under an unmoving conveyer belt.

During the alarm's annoying ringing, the unknown follower of the Bladebreakers ran into an office room that was joined to the manufacturing room. He found it interesting, and lounged comfortably in the boss chair. Soon he discovered the boss computer, which controlled the processes of the robots being made and the robots already being made. Fascinated by the mouse and keyboard, he typed and clicked, clicked some more and typed some more, somehow bypassing the security password and firewall. The alarm automatically turned off when he logged in. Then up popped something labeled Robot Control Center. He clicked on it, and a pop-up flashed onto the screen. WARNING: DO NOT RE-WIRE ROBOTS UNLESS YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE DOING. "OOOooh. This is getting interesting, crab."

* * *

Back outside, Kai noticed the alarms had stopped going off. "Chances are we've been discovered," he told the others. "Ray, go get Kenny and Max from in there and let's get leave." Ray nodded and went off.

"Well, we did what we could," Tyson said miserably, trudging back in what he thought was the direction of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land.

"Um... Tyson... Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land is that-a-way," Hilary corrected him, pointing in the exact opposite direction Tyson was heading in.

"Right. I knew that," Tyson said, doing a 180 and keeping on walking. By now Ray had caught up, along with Kenny and Max.

"Well, our mission may have failed, but at least we figured out where the factory was," Max said lamely to fill in the awkward silence.

"Spread your wings, Horuseus!" Nile called to his bey over the din of battle. He and some others had been challenged to battle by a group of the robot portion of Zaggart's army. He had to admit that even though this squad was made up of the most elite bladers in town, they were barely holding their own. When he glanced up quickly from battle he noticed Leone's tornado wall and Kyoya's greenish aura around that area. Nile also noticed the blue aura of Gingka and Cosmic Pegasus and Aguma and Scythe Kronos's purple aura. Then he focused his green-eyed gaze back on his very own battle.

"Leone, keep it up!" Kyoya called to his bey. The fight was tough for sure, with no real winner or loser in the picture, this full-out sprinter-paced battle for domination continued to rage. It had been a long time since he and Leone had battled opponents this highly skilled and powerful. In truth, he had missed the challenge. "Come on Leone! These battles will only make us stronger. Lion Gale Force Wall!"

Three robo-bladers rose to the challenge and commanded their beys to rush the wind wall, but at the last second they pulled back. "What's wrong? Can't break the wall?" Kyoya taunted.

"System reprogramming, shutting dooowwwnnn..." The robots stood straight up and stopped battling, their beys seeming to stop in mid-spin. Their eyes darkened, as if an internal light had been put out by an unseen hand.

Gingka frowned. "Okay, what just happened? One second I was pouring my entire blader's spirit into a huge battle and the next it stops. What's up with that?"

No one payed him much attention. "Look at this. The bey, it just stopped in mid-spin, yet it's still standing upright." Nile was on the ground examining the beys he had been battling. "I've never seen anything like it in my life."

"I've never seen a robot army in my life," muttered Chris; but he too wondered what had happened to stop the robots in mid-battle.

"Whatever happened, it's totally exciting!" Titi said with a smile. He poked one of the beys with a finger. "Hey! It's like touching a solid wall!" He tried stepping on it, but it was like standing on a step; solid ground.

Now Aguma was frowning. "Titi shouldn't be able to do that. It cannot be possible."

Kyoya was inclined to agree. Then King spoke up. "It's as if someone hit a giant 'pause' button or something. Everything just stopped, and stayed where it was. But then what about us? Shouldn't we be paused to?" He looked around frantically, as if he thought the others in his group would slowly each begin to freeze and not move.

"Powering uuuUUUPPP!" A disembodied voice emerged from all around them as the robots rose to their feet.

The bey Titi was standing on started spinning again, and the young legendary blader was flung into the grass. As he was standing up, all they beys returned to the hands of their robot owners. "Hey! We haven't finished our battle yet, pals!" King shouted, shaking his fist at the robots he had been battling. They didn't seem to notice. They had their new commands.

The lead robot turned to King. "We meet again later, crab. Gotta scuttle over to the ocean. Crabaaaaa!" King just stared after it.

"You know, that sounded a lot like..." Gingka was afraid to finish his sentence, so Kyoya did for him. "Tetsuya."

**No need to explain this chapter. Just want to say thanks again for your reviews and your patience while I worked my way ever so slowly through my writer's block. I should be able to post sometime next weekend. Oh, and did you know that this story is up to 60 reviews?! Thanks so much! And on a side-note, did anyone else think it was super-cool how Ryuga seemed to teleport to Beyster Island in that flash of red lighting? And then destroyed everything and everyone in his path? Cause I sure did!**


	33. Confusion and Somewhat Evil Plots

**I really like this chapter and enjoyed writing it even as I struggled through the process, if that makes any sense at all. So without further ado, King?**

**King: xxstarsnowxx does not own Beyblade or Beyblade Metal Fight in any way. And what's up with Tetsuya, anyway?**

**Me: Just read and find out!**

_Chapter 33 Confusion and Somewhat Evil Plots_

"Ahahaha!" laughed Tetsuya, who was still lounging in the office in the robo-factory. "I have no clue what I just did, but it sure was funny!" He had gotten video footage of the robots telling King and the others that they had to scuttle over to the ocean; crabaaaaa. Needless to say, Tetsuya had been laughing his butt off. He was currently figuring out new things to command the robots to do. Right now he was thinking of... hosting a party. For all his crab friends, of course.

* * *

"They did what?" Zeo Zaggart paled as one of his inner-circle commanders told him what had happened with the robots.

"Just randomly went off, saying they had to visit the ocean or something. They kept saying the word 'crab'." The commander was scratching his head in confusion.

Zeo frowned. "It sounds like someone reprogrammed the robots, but who? That's what we need to find out."

* * *

Back in Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land the day following the reprogramming of the robots, King had called for an emergency legendary blader meeting at his castle ASAP; Ryo was currently running a commercial for it on Ryo TV. King tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the ten legendary bladers to arrive. Well, nine, not counting himself. First to come was Kyoya, who stormed in angrily. "Why didn't you invite Nile?" the spring blader demanded.

"What are you talking about? I'm right here!" Nile walked into the room from somewhere else in King's castle. "I was the one who suggested to King that we have a legendary blader meeting."

"Oh." Kyoya was satisfied now that his partner-in-business was present at the very important meeting.

"Hey guys! Did I miss anything?" Gingka asked cheerfully as he walked in. He wiped his shoes off on the expensive carpeting (thankfully they weren't even dirty), tripped over one of Johannes's cats that had slunk into King's castle in order to spy on the meeting for her master, steadied himself on a rather flimsy table holding up an expensive vase, and crashed to the floor face first. Thankfully Nile's quick thinking and sudden dive saved the expensive vase from shattering thanks to Gingka's klutzy moment.

"Nothing at all," Nile responded, getting to his feet and setting the vase back in place. A few minutes later Yuki arrived and began chatting up a storm with Gingka. Kenta soon arrived as well and joined in their conversation. Then in came Aguma, who stood in a corner and refused to talk to anyone. Meanwhile Kyoya, Nile, and King were setting up chairs in a circle around a round table. "It's so that no one is made to feel more or less important than anyone else," King explained rather unnecessarily. He rather liked hearing the sound of his own voice, though.

"Yeah, we all know that Gingka would want to be in charge," Kyoya muttered.

"And that would turn out... interesting," Nile concluded. They would probably end up arguing about whether burgers were better with or without pickles.

Dynamis arrived next, followed by Chris. They both silently took a seat at the table. Aguma left his corner to join them. Gingka, Yuki, and Kenta moved their conversation over to the table as well, no doubt annoying those who were already there. Kyoya, Nile, and King took their places at the table as well. "Well, we're only missing two bladers," King said, trying to engage the others in conversation.

Chris nodded. "Let's hope they get here soon..."

No sooner had he said that than Titi bounded into the room and took a seat on Gingka's right. "Is it time to get started?" he asked curiously.

King counted around the table. "We're still missing one person. Should we start anyway?"

Kyoya yawned. Might as well get this over with, he was thinking. "Wait! We can't start without HIM! He might get very... mad..." Gingka trailed off, his voice getting very quiet. Kenta flinched, fully expecting the door to fly open, lightning to flash, and the Dragon Emperor to make his grand appearance. But that didn't happen.

After another minute or two of waiting, even Gingka was getting impatient. "Okay, maybe we can-"

Just then, the door creaked open slowly. Gingka gulped and everyone in the room stared fixedly at the door as in walked... a cat. "Meow?" The cat tilted its head to one side and padded into the room, joining the cat that was already there.

Yuki frowned, knowing that Johannes was trying to get a sneak-peak into what was decided at this meeting. "King, you mind if I boot these cats out?"

"Not at all. Knock yourself out," King said, propping his feet up on the table until Chris frowned at him.

Yuki scooped the cats up, who mewled in protest, and walked over to toss them out the door. He figured it wouldn't be that mean because cats always land on their feet and all. But then the door flew open, knocking Yuki off his feet and onto the floor. The cats escaped, but forgot their mission and fled out the door in order to avoid the just-arrived Dragon Emperor.

"Hello everybody. Miss me?" Ryuga asked, slamming the door behind him. He was in a surprisingly good mood today, shocking everyone. Then he frowned. "What's Shortpants doing lying on the floor? Don't we have a meeting to get to?"

Yuki scrambled to his feet, deciding not to tell Ryuga that he had knocked him over. "Yes sir, Mr. Ryuga." He scurried over to reclaim his seat, leaving Ryuga to take the last seat available; the chair between Kenta and Aguma. Ryuga went over and sat down; King promptly started the meeting.

"As you all probably know, or _most of you _know," King began, glaring at Ryuga, who stared straight-faced back at him, "The robot army of Zeo Zaggart seems to have, er, malfunctioned. Perhaps reprogrammed is a better word. Now that in itself is fine, but the problem is _who_ is in control of these robots. We suspect that it is Tetsuya Watarigani."

"The crab guy!" Gingka cut in. "This is BAD news. Tetsuya plus a robot army equals a recipe for disaster!"

A bunch of people didn't even know who Tetsuya was, including Aguma, Dynamis, Titi, and even Chris. "Tetsuya?" asked Ryuga. "The guy that I totally beat up and took power from back when I had Lightning Ldrago? He's a weirdo."

Everyone nodded. Weirdo seemed to be the general consensus on how everyone felt about Tetsuya 'the crab' Watarigani. "So... what are we going to do?" Gingka asked.

King pondered for a moment before responding. "To reprogram the robots, Tetsuya must have hacked into some kind of computer system that controlled all of them from one centralized location." Here King turned back to Gingka. "Do you think Madoka could use her skills to find out where this place is?"

Gingka nodded. "I'll ask her. I'm sure she'll agree to help."

"So is that all we had this meeting for?" Aguma asked. "'Cause that seems like kind of a waste of time if you ask me."

"No no," King went on. "I think that now that the robo-army is out of the picture, we should go straight ahead and attack Zeo Zaggart and the remainder of his army. Sound like a plan?"

"Yes Mr. King," Yuki said. "But I think we should be careful not to have anyone face Zeo Zaggart one on one. We've seen what kind of power that guy has."

Sullenly, most of the people present at the table agreed not to take on Zeo in a one on one battle, although this went against some of their feelings on the matter. Kyoya refused. "I've always battled on my own. Why stop now?" Although he at least said that he would only fight if Zeo challenged him first, as did Nile.

Aguma said "The members of the Beylin Fist will not demean themselves by not accepting a challenge." Which meant that he also would not battle one on one unless first asked.

"Humph. I always accept a challenge. In fact, I am often the one to initiate the challenge," Chris told everyone.

Gingka, Titi, Yuki, Kenta, King, and Dynamis all agreed not to fight alone against the town's enemy. "He's just dangerous," Dynamis said. "I know that first-hand. I highly recommend grabbing a partner if challenged."

Ryuga stood up. "You all are pathetic. Ldrago Destructor and I can face any opponent and overcome him. Go ahead and try to stop me from battling Zeo. It's not going to work. Anyway, that guy is probably scared of the Dragon Emperor." With that, he stalked out the door, which slowly shut behind him.

Gingka sighed. "We'd better follow him. He probably knows where the army is." Gingka left, along with Yuki, King, Dynamis, Titi, Kenta, Aguma, Kyoya, and Nile. Chris stayed a second later and muttered something under his breath before following the rest of the gang.

* Meanwhile... *

"Well, that was a bizarre experience the other day," Hilary was telling the Bladebreakers. "I mean, the alarms went off and all, but no one came to investigate or anything."

"Yeah, I didn't see anyone turn the alarms off either. They just suddenly stopped," Max pointed out.

"Something big is going on here," said Kenny. "But what?"

"I don't know, Chief," Ray said. "Got any suggestions, questions, comments or concerns, Kai?"

"Hmm?" Kai slid his phone back in his pocket. "Nope nothing. Gotta go." With that, he walked out of the room, leaving the others to wonder exactly what was going on in more than one level now.

**Ryuga: Hm. Never thought King would be one to back down from a challenge.**

**King: Look D.E., I already fought Zeo, and we just want him gone, so why not just have every strong blader in town attack at once? Sounds good to me.**

**Gingka: D.E.? That's a cute nickname. I think I'll start calling you that, Ryuga.**

**Ryuga: Gingka, don't you dare!**

**Gingka: Actually, I do dare, D.E.**

**Ryuga: You'll regret that, Hagane! [stalks closer to him]**

**Gingka: [backing away fearfully] What does D.E. even stand for, King?**

**King: [face-palms] Dragon Emperor. How could you not kn-**

**Ryuga: That's the final straw! You're going down, Horse Boy! [lunges at Gingka and begins chasing him around the room]**

**King: Well, it looks like that's it for today everyone. Please review! And be sure to say lots of nice things about me and D.E., I mean, Ryuga. But you can make fun of Gingka. I'm sure he won't care.**

**Gingka: I HEARD THAT, KING! [promptly gets tackled by Ryuga]**

**King: Well, I'd better leave before Madoka comes and blows up at Ryuga or something. Toodles!**


	34. Turning Zeo's Plan Against Him

**King: Without further ado... it sure has been a long time, no? We bring you the thirty-fourth chapter of this story. D.E.?**

…

**Ryuga: Don't you dare call me that ever again, King. I've tolerated it far too long.**

**King: Three weeks too long?**

**Ryuga: Has it really been that long? Whatever. Just hear me, King. This is your FINAL WARNING! AND THAT GOES FOR EVERYONE.**

**[door opens]**

**Gingka: Hey King, hello D.E.**

**Ryuga: [raises one eyebrow and slowly stalks over toward the newcomer]**

**Gingka: Um... Was it something I said? [is then promptly chased out of the room by a very angry Dragon Emperor]**

**King: xxstarsnowxx has been quite busy these past weeks, and sends her apologies along with this chapter which, and I quote, "took forever to write".**

**Ryuga: Enjoy!**

**King: Back so soon?**

**Disclaimer by Facehunter #28: xxstarsnowxx does not own Beyblade or Beyblade Metal Fight in any sort of way.**

_Chapter 34 Turning Zeo's Plan Against Him_

Zeo Zaggart sprinted to the spot of his robo-factory that had been built with the assistance of his father. It was the key to his success against King and the other bladers in Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land. With his control over the highly powerful robots, he had had an almost 100% guarantee of success. But now someone had hacked into that plan and was trying to stop him.

Zeo threw open the door and looked in, but the main production room was empty, devoid of anyone who was a suspected hacker. A frown crossed his face as he strode over to the one door that was closed: It was the door that led to the room that housed the main computer system controlling the robots. Almost hesitantly, Zeo's hand reached out and grasped the doorknob, turning it, and readying himself to face whoever was inside.

The door creaked open, and the first thing that Zeo's eyes fell on was a raggedly-cloaked figure hunched over the computer and muttering about crabs. It was then that Zeo realized that there was a hoard of crabs scuttling all over the floor of the room. "Who are you, and what are you doing infiltrating my factory?" Zeo asked, pulling out his bey.

The figure at the computer turned around slowly, and it was then that Zeo realized exactly what kind of person he was dealing with: A complete nut-case. "Crabby! I just wandered in here and discovered I can control these robots. So now we're off to the ocean to have a party with all my crab friends. You got a problem with that, crab?"

"Actually I do, _crab_. How about a battle to see who will control the robo-army?" challenged Zeo Zaggart.

"You think you can take me, crab? Go ahead and try!" Tetsuya pulled out his Gasher bey and prepared to fight. "I'm not going to give up on my crabby beach party so easily. Prepare to die! Crab!"

Zeo Zaggart smirked. This guy had no idea what he was getting himself into.

* * *

"Looks like we won't need Madoka's help to find the robo-factory after all," Gingka proclaimed. He and the others were following Ryuga's lead into the woods. Only the elder teen at the front of the group of bladers appeared to know where he was going; everyone else just hoped he was right. The white and red-haired blader in the lead walked on with swift and certain steps through the forest.

All of a sudden, a building loomed in front of them. Kenta flinched at the unexpected sight. "So, um, is this the robo-factory?" he asked.

"Indeed it is," said Kai, who had just walked in and joined them.

Machine equipment lay strewn around, but the building appeared to be devoid of anyone. Everyone looked around for any clues as to the whereabouts of the town's arch-enemy.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kyoya caught a glimpse of someone through a partially opened door. He silently beckoned everyone to follow him as he crept closer, hoping to get a sneak-peak at who was behind the door. As he got closer, he began to discern what was occurring.

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

Gingka couldn't contain himself any longer. "Let it rip!" He launched Pegasus in the middle of the two bladers facing each other: Zeo and Tetsuya. The two of them may not have appreciated it, but in actuality Gingka had saved Tetsuya from receiving a thorough thrashing by Zeo Zaggart.

'The Crab' saw it otherwise. "Gingka-crab! What do you think you're doing? This is my battle, crab. MY BATTLE!" Tetsuya danced around angrily, clicking his fingers together like crab pincers.

For once, Zeo Zaggart agreed with something the accidental robo-hacker said. "Yeah. You can't just jump in whenever you feel like it." Then an evil grin crossed his face. "But now that you have kindly joined us, you too can be utterly crushed. Prepare to go down into the depths of defeat!" Cerberus roared as it was released from its launcher and immediately began pummeling Pegasus with blow after blow.

"Smash mode! Barrage mode! Upper mode! Gah! Why can't I gain any ground?" cried Gingka as he got pushed back further and further. Zeo just smirked at him and kept pushing him to his limits.

As of now, the other bladers that had come along were just watching the ongoing battle, some because they were frozen in place (Kenta and Yuki), some because they wondered just how this would turn out (Kyoya, Nile, Kai, King), and one just because it was fun to watch Gingka get pummeled (Ryuga). The other legendary bladers didn't know what to do; since the others weren't doing anything to help Gingka, they decided not to as well. After all, Gingka would most likely be upset at any interference unless he stated so otherwise.

Gingka began to realize that he would not win this by holding back even a tiny portion of his full strength. "Pegasus, final drive mode, GOOOO!" His bey's rotation sped immensely and zoomed toward Zeo's Cerberus. "Special move, Cosmic Tornado!"

"Counter him, Cerberus. Special move, Hades Flames!" yelled Zeo, even more certain of victory now.

King, realizing they were in an enclosed area, called out to everyone. "Evacuate the building, they're gonna blow this popsicle stand!"

Well, that was one way of putting it, Nile thought as he and Kyoya and Kai raced out of the building along with most of the others. All except for one; but no one noticed until the were all out in the forest. "Hey, where'd -"

* * *

"Let it rip!" The bey flew from his launcher right into the middle of the battle between Pegasus and Cerberus. "Special move, Barnard's Loop!" Chris's bey swallowed the energy of the two special moves, but they both still spun. Thankfully, his quick thinking had saved the robo-factory from exploding like a rotten tomato can. Gingka and Zeo, however, were not thankful at all. Especially not Zeo.

"Hey! This is the SECOND time someone has butted into a battle of mine. I can't stand it anymore. AAAHHH!" Zeo's bey spun faster and faster and faster. Chris and Gingka faced him head on, and as Cerberus spun toward them, they attacked at once; for once they were united toward a single goal.

But even with a double attack, they were barely holding Cerberus back. It had been super-charged by Zeo's intense anger and hatred toward everyone and everything in Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land. "Grr! Can you handle this?" Zeo shouted at them, increasing his power somehow by channeling more and more hatred toward them.

Just as it seemed Pegasus and Orion couldn't hold him back much longer, a new bey joined the battle, zooming around them in reverse rotation before adding in a third attack to stop Zeo Zaggart. "King!" cried Gingka. Indeed, the "king" of the town had come back.

"All together now, attack!" King shouted. "Let's rid our town of Zeo Zaggart once and for all. Special move, Variares, King of Thundersword!"

Variares appeared and charged its sword with red lightning, preparing to strike down on Cerberus. Pegasus reared up and neighed, charging its opponent. Phantom Orion charged toward Cerberus with all the speed it had.

"I didn't want to use this move so soon, but appears I have no choice," Zeo said with his trademark evil smile. "Special move, Blazing Triple Death!"

Cerberus the three-headed dog appeared, flames in each of his three mouths, and breathed out fire on each of the three attacking beys, halting them in their path and then beginning to overpower them. "Muahahahaha!" laughed Zeo Zaggart. But he froze in mid-laugh: The other legendary bladers and their friends had re-entered the building and were preparing to battle him as well.

A frown crossed Zeo's face. He used a last burst of power to knock Pegasus, Orion, and Variares back into their respected owner's hands. "Catch ya later. Or should I say, defeat you later!" he sniped over his shoulder as he caught his own bey and raced out of the building into the surrounding woods.

"Rats! And we almost had him!" Gingka said to the newcomers.

"Pft. Don't be foolish, Gingka. He had this planned all along," said Kyoya. "He may not have wanted to retreat, but he knew that he alone couldn't take on all of us combined, no matter what his power level."

Just then, a paper airplane zoomed into the room and flew around in circles, defying gravity as it refused to land. "I've got it, I've got it!" yelled Kenta, jumping around the room trying to catch the flying plane. Yuki and Titi joined in the fun.

"I've got it! I've got it!" they all called out loudly.

"Great, this room's turned into a playground," muttered Aguma. He reached out a hand and caught the plane as it zoomed by.

"Whoa! Great catch, Aguma!" Kenta told him. "Can I read it?"

Aguma snorted. "No. I caught it, so I'll decide who reads it." Personally, he was thinking he didn't want to hear the kid's annoying voice any more than he absolutely had to. "King? Care to discover the contents of this note?" Aguma asked, unfolding the plane.

King took it and read it quick. "It's from Tsubasa. He says, 'The main part of Zeo's army just appeared. They're gaining on us. Need backup soon.'"

"Guess we should get over there and help, right Mr. King?" Yuki half suggested, half asked.

King responded, "I suppose-"

"No need to bother with that. I can help, crab." Tetsuya had scuttled back into the room and over to the computer, which had safely survived the battle. He was still logged in, he noted thankfully. He didn't think that even _his_ dumb luck would be enough the crack the password again.

Gingka walked curiously over and looked over his shoulder at the screen. Tetsuya was typing furiously at they keyboard. He kept making mistakes and having to use the backspace button. "Go. To. Town. Anti-Zeo. Zaggart. Land. And. Fight. Army. Of. Zeo. Zaggart." Gingka read each word Tetsuya typed. Then, the realization of what had just happened hit him like a semi on the autobahn. "You're telling Zeo's own army to attack Zeo! What an ingenious plan! I'd hug you, Tetsuya, but I don't want any crab germs on me. So I'll just say this: THANKS!"

Kenta and the others that knew Tetsuya, were in shock that 'the crab' had actually thought of something smart for once.

"Thanks to you all, crabs. Gotta scuttle. Later!" With that, Tetsuya 'The Crab' Watarigani bent his legs, used his fingers like pincers, and scuttled right out of the door past all of those assembled in the robo-factory.

"Well, I guess he wasn't nearly as much of a problem as you all thought he would be," Dynamis interjected into the ensuing silence Tetsuya had left in his wake.

Most everyone nodded in agreement. "Guess we don't have to take care of the town problem anymore," Titi said happily. "So what do we do now? Go after Zeo? Where did he go?" Titi began to head out the door with Kenta and Yuki about to follow along when a hand grasped his shirt-collar and yanked him back.

"Not just now," Dynamis told him. "I have a feeling that later on, we'll know exactly when and where to fight our battle with Zeo Zaggart."

"Our _final_ battle," Ryuga added mysteriously.

**Ryuga: I love how I get the last line in this chapter. **

**King: I didn't think you LOVED anything, Ryuga. And how'd you make such short work of Gingka? You know, for his earlier insult...?**

**Ryuga: Thanks King. And Gingka tripped down the stairs and landed on his face. I decided that was punishment enough. For now. **

**King: Well, see ya'll next chapter!**


	35. Ryuga's Prediction: The Final Battle

**So sorry everyone! I didn't mean to go so long without posting! As a special treat, please enjoy this extra long chapter [humbly bows]. I just had so much that I wanted to write! And now... Ryuto?**

**Ryuto: xxstarsnowxx does not own Beyblade or Beyblade Metal Fight in any sort of way. And just for clarification, a bunch of these chapter sections-**

**Me: -All the ones after this very first one-**

**Ryuto: -are all occuring at the same time.**

_Chapter 35 Ryuga's Prediction: The Final Battle_

Things had been strangely peaceful in Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land the past two days. After the robots had been turned against Zeo Zaggart upon Tetsuya's orders, the members of Zeo's army had fled in a semi-organized retreat. Citizens of the town could only guess that they had met up with their almost-defeated leader somewhere out there and were planning on returning and retaliating soon. "In which case, we of the town of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land shall be completely and utterly prepared!" King yelled to the crowd, who roared in response. Once again, the town had gathered for their second bi-monthly meeting outside the Beyblade Battlegrounds.

As the applause settled a rumbling, thunder-like noise suddenly was noticeable. People looked around in somewhat confusion as to what and where this noise was coming from until Kyoya pointed toward the main entrance of town. "The sound's coming from over there!" he shouted.

Julian, Wales, Sophie, and Klaus were closest to the noise and led the rush to the entrance gate of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land. There, they discovered that Zeo Zaggart and his army had re-grouped and were once again on the offensive. Only this time, it was the predicted final battle. Everyone armed themselves, and the fight began.

* * *

"Ian! Pass some more ice cream over here! The catapult is almost out!" Selen shouted to her brother. She was helping out at Ian's Ice Cream with the defenses that had been set up weeks ago. Catapults flung the ice cream (and maraschino cherries!) into the ranks of the oncoming army invasion. For once they had been able to penetrate the very outer defenses of the town, though they _had_ triggered numerous traps that the biker gang had set up (the very same kind that Sora had tragically fallen into).

"Face me, you coward!" the elder Garcia brother, Argo, yelled at a fleeing, ice-cream-covered opponent.

"Nooo!" he howled, then as an afterthought, "Hey, is this moose tracks ice cream?"

Just as he finished the sentence, Argo's Ray Gil smashed into his bey, sending it flying into a nearby rock and reducing it to rubble. The bey had by then stopped spinning.

"Yes!" Argo exclaimed. He high-fived his siblings and then ran off to attack a blader who had recently been covered in Blue Moon.

* * *

"Go Eagle, keep up the attack!" yelled Tsubasa, who was in the thick of the fight at the middle of the town itself. He and his opponent were currently running down the streets with their beys speeding after them and attacking at the same time.

"Hahaha!" laughed the random blader in Zeo Zaggart's army. "You think you can keep this high speed chase much longer?"

"Of course I can!" Tsubasa retorted, but the truth was that he probably could not. He had battled many bladers before this one, and the wear and tear of battle was certainly getting to him by now.

The two of them kept on attacking, however. Tsubasa was never one to give up on a battle, no matter how tough the opponent or the conditions. Down the street they ran, past Lavushka Library, past Demure's Theater, and past Jack's JArt. Soon, the Beyblade Battlegrounds loomed overhead as the two passed by it.

"Muahahahaha!" laughed Tsubasa's opponent. He could tell that Tsubasa was about to collapse, faint, or pass out. Any option was good in his mind.

_The world, it's spinning. I can't see straight. And what's this blackness in the corners of my vision? _"Go Eagle," Tsubasa gasped out, prepping for what would certainly be his last attack. _My aura, it's fading... Keep strong, Eagle. Hold on. Just. A. Little. Mo-_

Tsubasa fell to his knees, prepared for the end. But all he saw was... blue. _What's that? __Salvation? _And with that last thought, Tsubasa blacked out for good.

The Zeo Zaggart army blader had absolutely no hope of evading this new attack. Ryuga's specially programmed fountain had just shot water at him and hit him full blast in the face. Well, that was one blader that didn't need to be worried about anymore.

* * *

"Mystic Zone!"

"King Lion Tearing Blast!"

BOOM! Two huge explosions filled the air as Kyoya and Nile's special moves wiped out the beys of the bladers they had been battling.

"Let's get going," Nile said as the smoke cleared.

He and Kyoya called back their beys to their hands and raced on, only to find their ways blocked by one person. "Yo. I'm the second in command leader, Captain O'Br5ian with a silent 5."

"So, basically your name is Captain O'Brian?" asked Nile.

"Yes. No. It's very particular. Captain O'Br5ian. The 5 is silent." The Captain wrote his name in the dirt on the ground.

Kyoya and Nile blinked. Honestly, they could have cared less. "Well are you just going to shoot your mouth off or man up and battle us, silent 5 guy?" Kyoya snapped.

"That's Captain O'Br5ian to you, dude. And I'm not going anywhere until I defeat you two. I have my orders," Captain O'Br5ian said with a slight chuckle. "I was told directly from our noble, awesome, fearless leader Zeo Zaggart to stop you two from reaching him. He has his own plans, which include defeating your King King. But that's all I'm telling you. Yep, you're not getting any more information from me!"

Nile whispered, "Kyoya, I think this guy _really_ likes 'shooting his mouth off'."

"Yeah, I can tell," Kyoya said back. _This could be a LOOONG battle._

At that moment, Captain O'Br5ian pulled out his bey. "Meet my Tartarus Andromeda SJI516. No need to remember that last part, just recall my Tartarus Andromeda sending you both to the depths of Tartarus! Muahahahaha!"

"Wow, how original," Nile said drily, hooking Vulcan Horuseus onto his launcher as Kyoya did the same with Fang Leone. "Now let's cut the chatter and battle! 3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"Let it rip!" The three beys spun around, Horuseus and Leone ending up circling Andromeda and lightly attacking, just testing its strength for now.

"Hmm. Seems to be a stamina type, judging from its position and stable spin," Kyoya noted. "You know what to do, Nile."

"Alright. Go Horuseus!" Nile's bey barrage attacked Andromeda, stronger than the previous attacks. Now was go-time before the stamina type drew out the battle. Besides, he and Kyoya had the two on one advantage. As a tag-team, they were virtually undefeatable.

While Captain O'Br5ian's attention was focused on deflecting the attacks of Horuseus, Kyoya's Leone moved off a ways and then charged forward, gaining momentum and crashing head-on with Andromeda, which was sent flying.

"Oh yeah, take that!" Kyoya had Leone follow the smash up with barrage hits, and then he and Nile had their beys perform a pincer attack. Andromeda was sent reeling backward, but Kyoya and Nile knew something was up, because the Captain was smiling and calm.

As the battle raged on, Kyoya and Nile knew that O'Br5ian wasn't using his full power at all. They needed to get him to fight all out and stop messing around. It was crucial that they wrap up this battle as quickly as possible. The sky was already darkening, but not with night; with stormy rain clouds. The Captain looked up at the clouds (he really didn't like being out in the rain), down at his battle, and made his move.

"Andromeda." His voice was sharp as he commanded his bey, which responded by releasing a surge of power that knocked both Leone and Horuseus back a few feet.

"Hm. It seems like you _were_ holding back. Well, that won't help you anymore! Roar Leone! Special move, King Lion Tearing Blast!" Leone's tornadoes whipped up, surrounding Andromeda and sending it flying.

But as it was in the air, Captain O'Br5ian seemed to have another trick up his sleeve. "Special move, Andromeda, Galactic Chains!" The spirit-beast of Andromeda appeared; a young woman with chains on her arms and legs. She moved with frightening speed toward Leone and slashed down hard with one of the chains.

"Errr! Dodge it Leone!" cried Kyoya. His bey's lion spirit-beast leaped to the side, but the end of Andromeda's special move still caught it a glancing blow, draining some power and stamina. Kyoya realized this, and shot a glance at Nile. The two of them had to end this and end it soon.

"Go hard, go now, Leone! King Lion Crushing Fang!" Kyoya yelled as Leone roared toward the even darker sky. Once more, Andromeda went flying into the air.

"Bad move," barked Captain O'Br5ian. "Andromeda, Galactic Chains!"

"Right back at ya," Nile countered. "Special move, Horuseus, Mystic Zone!" Nile's move burst forth with a glowing golden tower of mysterious light, which swallowed up Andromeda as it flew toward its intended target: Leone.

As the light faded and darkness returned, a voice remarked, "That's the way the bey spins. You can't expect to win two on one against two of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Lands' powerhouse bladers. That's it for now, audience. Immortal Phoenix over and out!"

Kyoya and Nile rolled their eyes. Ryo Hagane had caught the end of their battle with Andromeda, and was doing a live television coverage of it for Ryo TV. As the camera crew packed up their stuff, ready to call it a day, a pillar of raw power appeared in the distance, lighting up the sky. In its light, Kyoya noted that the Captain O'Br5ian had disappeared, along with Andromeda. Then Ryo's voice broke into his thoughts. "We must follow the light! The light at the end of the tunnel! Let's go!"

Ryo sprinted a few feet before slowing down his pace. He had a ways to go. Kyoya looked at Nile, who shrugged. "They may need our help," Nile responded as he also began to jog toward the town. Kyoya nodded and set off after him. It would be quickest to grab Nile's car and drive over. Ryo had run off in a different direction than them; toward the pillar, but not an exact route. Well, he _was_ always the one to choose the difficult path...

* * *

"Keep it up, Fox!"

"Go Lyre!"

Team Dungeon had gotten back together, and was battling a small assemblage of Zeo Zaggart's forces along with Chris, Ryuto, and Bao. Zeo Abyss's Fox rammed into a bey, which was then struck by Toby's Lyre and finally finished off by - "Striker, Lighting Sword Flash!" - Masamune and Blitz Striker's special move.

"Oh yeah, we make a great team, guys!" an over-excited Masamune exclaimed happily to Toby and Zeo, hugging them after their beys had returned to them.

"Yeah, that's great, Masamune," Zeo said awkwardly, patting his friend on the back and struggling to get out of the tight embrace. Toby was similarly stuck, but he had a better view than Zeo, and was able to see how the other battle was turning out. Ryuto appeared to be gearing up for his special move, as green lightning flickered in the air around Omega Dragonis.

"Dragonis, special move, Hammer Volt!" cried Ryuto, releasing the attack on all three of the opponents he, Chris, and Bao faced. As the move exploded with a fury, Chris and Bao moved in from each side in a pincer attack, and their opponent's beys ground against each other until the friction was too great and the beys were drained of their strength.

As the Zaggart bladers quickly grabbed their beys and scrambled away, the three turned to face another set of opponents. There seemed to be no end to this army, even though all the robots had been successfully removed (on accident) by Tetsuya.

"Hey, where's King? Why isn't he here with us?" Zeo suddenly thought to ask.

"Oh, he's probably off battling Zaggart himself," Masamune announced. An awkward silence then ensued for a bit.

"Um, Masamune? I think you've hugged us long enough now," Toby quietly pointed out.

"Oh. Right." Masamune let go. "I must have zoned out or something. That was odd." Then he shook his head to clear it, and his eyes brightened. "Let's go kick some more blader butt!" Zeo and Toby laughed and followed their friend toward... wherever he was going. The bladers they probably should have been battling were actually in the opposite direction...

*As this was all happening...*

"Foolish. How foolish of you to come and face me on your own, King," Zeo Zaggart said, shaking his head with a small smile on his face. The sunny day was starting to darken, stormy clouds rolled in on the horizon.

"It's not foolish. It had to be done," King stated simply, which was usually not his style. But he was thoroughly annoyed with Zeo Zaggart; fed up with his town-stealing issues, sick of his annoying face, voice, general appearance, etc., and tired of battling. Yes, he never thought he would say it, or even think it for that matter, but King was actually sick of bey battling Zeo Zaggart. He guessed those earlier factors were the reason for it.

"Well," King said with a sigh, "Let's get this over with." He held up Variares on its' launcher, ready to fight one, final battle. "3."

"2!" (Zeo was more excited than his mortal enemy, apparently)

"1! Let it rip!" Variares and Cerberus flew through the air and landed on the concrete. This major battle was happening just outside of town, on the main high-way. As the first enormous clash occurred, another blader appeared at the edge of the treeline surrounding the high-way area. This newcomer slowly reached for his own bey and launcher. The giant, final battle for the town was just beginning. But now was not the time for him to enter the battle yet. Not quite.

Meanwhile, Zeo Zaggart was laughing as evilly as usual and striking King's Variares with attack after attack. "King, I bet you'd never guess what I'm gonna name this town once I defeat you."

King did not respond to his enemy's teasing words. He was focusing all his energy, calling on the star fragment inside of Variares, using his concentration to feed Variares more power to use later on in the battle.

But King's silence didn't faze Zeo, who just laughed again. "I am going to name it Anti-King Land! Ha! How do you like that?"

"Very nice," King replied drily. "But that'll never happen. Go Variares!"

Just as King attacked Cerberus, the other blader launched his bey with a cry of, "Strike him down!"

This unexpected cry jerked King out of his battle-trance. "Wha? Who said that? And whose bey is that barging in on my one on one with Zeo Zaggart?"

"It's me!" the blader announced, stepping out into the light from the shadows. "Didn't you recognize my bey? I figured we could fight better as a team, King. Now let's rid Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land of Zeo Zaggart and live up to our names!"

"Uh, what names?" King asked, a bit slow on the up-take.

"Why, Anti-Zeo Zaggart Landites of course! But now let's get back to the business at hand. Go Pegasus!"

"Go Variares! Gingka, let's do a joint attack!" King called out to his new battle partner.

"Yeah, alright King! Pegasus, smash mode!"

"Variares, Ares Sword!"

"Counter them, Cerberus. Flames of Defense!" Zeo cried. Now was the time for him to use all his moves; this final battle was here, it was now or never, no more second, third, fourth chances. The impenetrable flames of his bey deflected the attacks of Variares and Pegasus. It looked like he had the upper hand, but he was thinking: _Oh man. Those attacks almost broke through my solid defenses! I'm lucky Pegasus didn't use a special move, or Cerberus and I would have taken some damage. Not a lot, but still some._

"Grr! He's too good!" Gingka said to King, who nodded.

"But we can't think about that. We must have hope: We _can_ defeat Zeo and restore peace to our - I mean, MY – town!" King was full of determination now, even though hope seemed to be disappearing as quickly as the light was from the sky as his and Gingka's battle with Zaggart dragged on.

*Later on...*

By this time, Pegasus's rotation speed was beginning to wane. Variares wasn't far from reaching the near end of its stamina as well. "We must end this now, while there is still light in the sky, Gingka," King panted, drawing himself back up to his full height and yelling as his legendary blader aura appeared; his hair turning white and the space around him and his bey turning reddish.

"Let's do this, King!" Gingka gasped out. "Aaaahhhh!" His blue aura appeared around him and Pegasus. "Alright, final drive mode and special move, Cosmic Tornado!"

"Variares, King of Thundersword!" cried King.

Red lightning flashed twice as Variares attacked at the same time as Pegasus.

"Cerberus!" Zeo called out hoarsely. He too was taking a toll from this battle. "Special Move, Inferno Pyro Flames!"

BOOM! EXPLOSION! CRASH! POW! The special moves met all at once and a pillar of light flew high into the sky, lighting up the darkness. When it cleared, all three bladers lay on the ground, their beys still spinning nearby.

"Uuugh." King was the first to begin to rise.

"I can't take this much longer," Gingka whispered, drawing himself to his knees. "It's like my bey spirit has... almost run dry. Is that even possible?"

"T-t-time to finish this," Zeo growled as he struggled to rise.

"It is indeed." FLASH! Red lighting flickered behind a familiar figure, and Zeo shivered. King and Gingka he could possibly handle, but _HIM_?

"Ryuga," Gingka gasped, getting to his feet along with King and Zeo.

"Gingka," the Dragon Emperor responded. "What took you so long? Why is Zeo still up? Ah, no matter. Now that I am here, this battle is OVER! LDRAGO!" Ryuga's bey flew directly toward Cerberus.

"Come on, Gingka! Let's get a piece of this victory as well!" King said, a spark of his usual excitement back as the legendary blader of Mars' Variares zoomed toward Cerberus with Pegasus in tow.

"And just to be on the safe side, Dragon Emperor Life Destructor!" Ryuga's voice rang out strongly. Gingka suspected that he just wanted to end the battle with a bang, as usual.

"It's go time, Cerberus!" cried Zeo, who had recovered better than King and Gingka. "Ultimate Inferno Pyro-"

_**BOOM!**_

"Yep, he's a goner," Ryuga said, dusting his hands off (although he hadn't gotten them dirty) and smoothly catching Ldrago Destructor as it returned to him.

King's eyes were huge. "THAT WAS AMAZING!"

Gingka took a quick glance around and fainted. That battle had taken his all.

As the area cleared, the form of Zeo Zaggart was seen grabbing his decimated Cerberus and looking toward them. "This may be it, but until my men hear of my defeat, they will fight indefinitely," he rasped. "My second in command has been charged with the duty of defeating your other two leaders. Once he succeeds, he'll move on to you." He turned to leave, but then a vehicle pulled up with a great deal of squealing tires.

The windows were rolled down, and the driver stuck his orange-haired head out of one. "You talking about that O'Br5ian with a silent 5 guy? 'Cause we just finished thoroughly whipping his bey's butt," Nile called out as he and Kyoya leaped out.

"NO!" Zeo yelled as loud as he could (which wasn't very loud at all). With that, he turned and walked away. He knew that he had been beaten once and for all.

"Gee, sure took him long enough," King noted as his arch-enemy strode off, defeated.

**Me: Oh man! I had that last BOOM typed up on my Word Document as font size 92, but it didn't transfer! NO! So I just bolded, underlined, and italicized it. And now we are coming toward the end of this story. I suspect there will be at least two more chapters, though, so don't worry! And now that I have only one week left of school including final exam days, I'll be free to write more stories! So Fanfictioners, I'll see ya later!**

**Kyoya: The authoress would also like you to review review review! **

**Nile: Yeah, she loves reading them.**

**Ryuga: I love reading them too. They're mainly about how awesome I am. And after this chapter, I think I've proved that I'm the awesomest character in this story.**

**Kyoya: [aside to Nile] I'm glad the power doesn't go to his head...**


	36. Normal Is Too Normal For King

**Hello readers. Sorry for the delay. I have no excuses on this one, being on summer break and all, but this was one loooong chapter and took a while to type. [sigh] I can't believe that this story is almost over. All that's left is chapter 37, where things go back to normal and – well, I'd hate to ruin the surprise for you all! So enjoy this (what I think is funny!) chapter! King?**

**King: starsnow doesn't own Beyblade or Beyblade Metal Fight in any sort of way! Now on to the story, featuring the one, the only, ME!**

_Chapter 36 Normal Is Too Normal For King_

King happily strode through Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land, which had recently lived up to its name, driving away Zeo Zaggart seemingly for good. He hadn't been spotted in quite a while, and the town was coming up on its one month anniversary of his defeat and riddance. Much had happened during that month. Aguma, Dynamis, and Titi had all build their own businesses and were now prominent citizens, roads had been repaired, shops rebuilt, and new trees planted in the woods (that effort was led by none other than Tsubasa, who, thanks to Ryuga, had realized his true calling as a tree-hugger and now led an environmentalist group along with the assistance of his eagle, who was the mascot).

King loved that his town was back up on its feet and running well, but after all they had been through with Zeo Zaggart, normalcy was, well, _too_ normal. "I need to spice things up somehow," King mused to himself as he wandered through the latest place that had been built: Dynamis's Dinosaurs, which was a museum, but Dynamis had had to become creative to match up his first letter with the museum's name, and thus Dynamis's Dinosaurs had been born.

The legendary blader of Mars had already visited Titi's Teriyaki, which served oriental-style food, and Aguma's Artillery, which certainly served its' owner's nature. King clearly recalled what Aguma had said when thinking about what to build. "This town needs to be more prepared for an attack. I'll aim to fix this with the building project you say I must undergo in order to be a 'prominent citizen'." It had all been real mysterious until Aguma had opened it up.

But now back to the problem at hand, King thought, ending his trip down memory lane as he exited Dynamis's Dinosaurs. What would make this town a little less... normal. Then, an idea struck as King was walking past the Beyblade Battlegrounds. "Opposite Day!"

* * *

It didn't take long for the entire town to gather for yet another town meeting outside the Beyblade Battlegrounds. King was bursting with excitement at the thought of what he considered an ingenious idea, but had told no one what the meeting was about. Kyoya and Nile were in the front row, looking around curiously at everyone, while Gingka and Masamune played tug-of-war with a burger they had gotten from who-knows-where. Tsubasa was confused as to why Rose wasn't by his side at this meeting; they always stuck together! Ryuga, surprisingly, was present in the front row instead of the back as usual. He had a rather gloom and doom expression on his face, as if he didn't think he would like this meeting at all.

Then, when everyone had assembled, King tapped his microphone to make sure it was on and began. "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land, congratulations on defeating our arch-enemy and returning to normalcy!"

Cue eardrum-popping, ear-splitting, earth-shattering applause and whistles from the audience. Doji clapped his hands over his ears, unused to loud noises (because no one ever talked to him). Johannes hissed as the sound waves ruffled his cat-like senses. Then, finally, calm arrived.

"But that is not why I have called you here today, no, not at all!" King continued happily. "I have decided that normalcy is too normal, and have taken it upon myself, as your king, to create a fun, joyful, wonderful, amazing, splendifferous activity in which everyone will take part in!"

Cue crazy cheering yet again.

"Of course, prominent citizens will be the ones having the most splendifferous (King liked that word) time, but non-prominent citizens will also join in on the fun, so don't you worry." King rubbed his hands together with glee at what his next pronouncement held. "I decided to call this activity... Opposite Day!"

A smattering of applause filled the air, but then a question popped up. "What's opposite day?" Gingka always wanted to know what was going on.

"Opposite Day is only the best thing that I have ever dreamed up in my entire life," King sighed dreamily, stars glowing in his eyes. Then he popped back to normal. "And believe me when I say that I've dreamed up many a thing in my exciting, fantastic life! Why, I remember this time when... But that's off the topic. Anywho, I have asked Rose to assist me in deciding what exactly happens for Opposite Day. Rose, would you come up here please?"

Rose mounted the steps to the Beyblade Battlegrounds (she had been waiting there for her cue, and therefore had not been with Tsubasa as usual). King grasped her hand and raised it into the air. People applauded for her, but were still wondering exactly what was going on. Things got even more confusing as King's butler brought up a small wooden table that had two tall black top hats on it. Rose moved to stand in front of the table as King went on.

"In the hat on my left are the names of all the prominent citizens in town on slips of paper. Now, these names are divided up by businesses, so if you co-own a business with anyone, you two will be on the same paper slip. And Julian, since you have two businesses, your name is in there twice. In the hat on my right are the names of everyone's businesses on slips of paper. I bet some of you can see where this is going. Rose will hold the hats over my head, and I will draw a name and a business, and tomorrow you will work at that business which gets paired with your name. The fun part for non-prominent citizens is that they get to work with a different person for a day! And now, for this occasion, I will have our very own Ryo Hagane commentate. Because I have to draw the names and all, ya know."

Ryo mounted the stage, looking somewhat professional for once. Gingka breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn't made his 'I am the Immortal Phoenix' speech yet. "Welcome everybody, to the very first Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land edition of Opposite Day, devised by our ever-brilliant King!" King waved as Ryo introduced him and then continued. "There are a few more things to say before the random selection process begins. First, don't even _think_ of disobeying and not running the place you're assigned to. There will be certain punishment in the form of people you and I know rather well... Also, it is _illegal _to switch businesses with someone else. This WILL NOT BE TOLERATED! And now, for the very first name..."

King swirled his hand around in the air before plunging it into the hat filled with names and picking one up, handing it to Ryo. "And the first name we have picked for Opposite Day is Salhan!" Ryo exclaimed. Salhan stood in shock and utter disbelief. Then he crossed his fingers and wished for the Beyblade Battlegrounds to be his business as King removed a slip of paper from the other hat Rose was holding and handed it also to Ryo. "And Salhan gets... Lavushka Library!"

Salhan visibly deflated. It wasn't what he had desired. But at least he hadn't gotten something horrid like Yuki's Yams... Ryo was now announcing which business Sophie would be running. "Vridick's Radical Pets!" Gingka's dad sure was having fun at his announcing job.

"Osamu, Takashi, and Akira get Hikaru's Hospital. Johannes gets Dashan's Donuts. Tsubasa mans the B-pit. Doji takes over Tetsuya & Teru's Hair & Nails. Ryo, oh that's myself!, gets Tsubasa's Tank Top Shop! Ooh! I'll have sooo much fun there!" Tsubasa just shivered in a corner had prayed that he didn't get something terrible.

"Team Lavushka has Salhan's Supersoaking Water Park. Damian gets Yu's Yo-yos."

"Ugh, seriously?" said Damian with a frown.

"Kyoya and Nile are working at Selen's Showers." At that pronouncement the two Battlegrounds co-owners shot each other an annoyed side-glance.

"Madoka is at Argo's Appliances. Julian gets Wales's Waterworks. Ian takes over Doji's Dojo. Wales has Masamune's Make-up. Masamune gets Chi & Chao's Chess & Checkers."

"Yes sir!" exclaimed Masamune.

"Selen runs Dynamis's Dinosaurs, Julian Konzern, now this is your second time, also gets Zeo's Zoo."

"No offense, Wales, but I'll spend a majority of tomorrow over there," Konzern told his teammate. Wells didn't answer. He was too busy wondering what to do about his situation at Masamune's Make-up.

"Vridick has Ian's Ice Cream. Dynamis controls Hyoma's Hotel. Yu cooks at King's Kitchen."

"Yippee!" Yu squealed. He had always wanted to run a fancy restaurant. King face palmed, and hoped his business didn't go off the deep end.

"Kenta is at Gingka's Gangly Burgers. Titi's at Gaser's Gas Station. Zeo Abyss runs Toby's Tacos. Enzo works at Damian's Department Store. Bao has Mei Mei's Market. Hyoma gets Bao's Bread Bakery. Hikaru blades at OTA Land. Toby takes over at Konzern's Kool Kleening. Aguma sells at Enzo's Envelopes. Tetsuya and Teru get Ryuto's Roller Coasters. Aleksey's at Julian's Junkyard. Gaser's place is Johannes's Yachts. Dashan runs Face Hunters' Facilities. Oh man, when am I gonna find out who runs my station?" Ryo whined.

"Who cares? Now shut-up and keep commentating!" King didn't mean this in a mean way, he was merely impatient to find out what place he himself would be running.

"Ooh, this is good one that I'm sure you've all been waiting for," Ryo couldn't resist saying. "Demure's at the top of the Beyblade Battlegrounds!"

"Ah, they couldn't have picked a better person," Kyoya said with a sigh.

"Aren't you worried he'll have a hard time beating tough bladers that make it to the top?" Nile asked.

"Nah. It's not the battles I was worried about, it's what kind of odd and idiotic changes that one could make if they got a hold of our business," Kyoya replied. "Imagine, for example, the caliber of disaster if someone such as Jack got control of the place."

"Ah, now I get what ya mean," Nile said, trying to shrug off the disturbing images of hideous artwork that Jack would line the walls of the Beyblade Battlegrounds with.

Ryo kept commentating, "Mei Mei gets Aguma's Artillery. Hycuto owns Jack's JArt for a day-"

"My beautiful masterpieces!" Jack sobbed.

"-The Face Hunters are at their old buddy Benkei's place: Benkei's Bath & Beauty. Yuki is at... hold on King, this has to be a mistake."

"What? I don't make mistakes!" King shouted at him. Then repeating himself quieter, "I don't make mistakes."

"Well it says here that Yuki is at Yuki's Yams! That's his own place!" Ryo yelled, matching King's volume.

"Oh. Well, I guess it was fate for him not to change," King declared, drawing another name as Yuki mumbled about being the one person in town who actually _wanted _a different business.

"Jack runs Demure's Theater. Gingka's at Sophie's Soap. Ryuga now runs... Ryo's Television Tower? What!" The Immortal Phoenix was aghast. How could this happen to him? His own mortal enemy take over his highly beloved station? Of course, Ryuga was also annoyed, until he thought of all the great things he could do to turn that horrible station into something actually TV worthy. At least for a day. Look out world, here comes Ryuga to save you from the horror of the Immortal Phoenix!

After Ryo had recovered somewhatly, he kept on going. "Benkei's at Tobio's Post Office. King gets Klaus's Cloth"

"Hooray!" shouted King, though he had no idea what to do at a cloth store. It was probably just his reaction to hearing his name...

"Chiyun and Chaoxin get Chris's Car & Car Repair Shop. Argo has Titi's Teriyaki."

"What? I don't know how to cook!" spat Argo. "Us Garcia siblings ate out of dumpsters when we were little, not fancy oriental places!"

"Work something out, I guess," Ryo said, his advice useless as usual. "Tobio gets Kenta's Ketchup. Ryuto gets Ryuga's Readables."

"Oh yeah!" Ryuto high-fived Ryuga, while Gingka commented rather loudly to his friends that he'd never seen Ryuga give anyone a high-five before. Ryuga heard him say it of course, but fortunately for Gingka he was in a good mood and let it slide.

"Klaus is at Hycuto's Dog Food, and Chris runs Aleksey's Arcade." Ryo sighed as he finished up the very long list of names and businesses.

"Whoo hoo! I hope everyone loves what they got, and luckily only Yuki got stuck with his own place, poor little guy, but I guess you all can prep for tomorrow or something, cause that's when you get to take over someone else's business." King was fully satisfied with the way things had gone, and could hardly bear to wait for tomorrow.

But Gingka still had one more question. "Can we take breaks from our own places and visit others? Cause that would be fun!"

"Of course!" King cried. "Tomorrow is supposed to be fun, and that's a great way to do it! Okay everybody, make sure you make arrangements with the person whose business you're taking over tomorrow!"

So most everyone figured something out and then went home. Most fell asleep in preparation for what could be a grueling and difficult day tomorrow. But some stayed up late into the night, plotting and scheming what they could do that very next day.

*The Next Morning (some may consider this still night)...*

At 4 am sharp Ryuga headed over to Ryo's Television Tower, intent on getting started with prep-work for the morning news report. It was his goal to do a billion times better than Ryo did, with his vague gestures and nonsensical words. But when he got up to the door and tugged on it, he realized that it was locked. "Why, that!" Ryuga exclaimed, certain that Ryo had locked him out on purpose. That is, until Ryo himself appeared zig-zagging along down the road toward him half asleep, it seemed.

Ryo yawned and sleep-walked into the door. (Turns out he actually was _fully_ asleep.) Once he recovered, he unlocked it and stepped inside, still sleep-walking. He bumbled over to the cameras and was about to start filming himself when Ryuga grabbed hold of his shoulders and shook him awake.

"In case you didn't realized, your Phoenixness, your job today is someplace else," Ryuga said.

"Oh oh oh. I forgot," Ryo announced, now awake. He then proceeded to exit the building and head over to Tsubasa's Tank Top Shop, where he was supposed to be, all the while warning Ryuga not to damage anything in the studio, or else...

"Yeah yeah, whatever," Ryuga muttered as Ryo disappeared off into the distance. He messed around with the cameras until they all showed what he wanted, and then began filming as the producers and cameramen walked in an hour later.

* * *

Nile yawned as he arrived at Selen's Showers. This could be a loooooong day, he thought with a sigh as he unlocked the door with the key Selen had given him. Sure enough, no one came in. He supposed it was because of how early in the morning it was. After all, if Nile had to go shopping for a new shower, _he_ wouldn't begin shopping until the afternoon most likely. But as the minutes dragged on into an hour, still no one had come. Not even Kyoya, who was supposed to have been there by now.

Nile reached for his phone to remind his friend, but then the door opened with the jingling of bells and Kyoya himself walked in. "Hey Nile. You're here early."

"No, you're here late!" Nile said.

Kyoya glanced around the shop before responding. "I just had to let Demure into the Beyblade Battlegrounds, that's all."

"Oh, and I'm sure that took you an entire hour..." Nile's voice was dripping with sarcasm

"Nope. Then I took my time getting back here," Kyoya said proudly. "After all, this is a _shower shop for crying out loud!_ Why would I want to hang around here any more than I absolutely have to?"

"Because you're supposed to."

"Whatever! I'm here now, so stop complaining. Hey, wanna bey battle until we get some customers?" Kyoya asked.

"Why not!" Nile replied. "Anything to keep this from being so utterly boring. But let's be careful not to break anything; this isn't the Beyblade Battlegrounds."

"Gotcha." Kyoya took out Leone. "3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"Let it rip!"

* * *

Yu happily skipped over to King's Kitchen and found the door unlocked. He wandered inside and put on a chef's hat and began busily ordering around the workers there. Yu had a plan for an all-you-can-eat buffet; for brunch of course. "La le la le la!" Yu sang happily as he strode around the kitchen, often asking the staff for help reaching even the mediumly high cabinets.

By the time the first people trickled in for brunch, Yu and King's staff had the buffet all ready to go. Kenta was on his break from Gingka's Gangly Burgers, and was the first to try the food. "Mmmm! This is delicious!" Kenta proclaimed after trying the main entree.

"Ooh! Ooh! Try this!" Yu told him, pointing to the fancy cake at the end of the table. "I'll even cut it for you. I made it myself!"

Kenta tried a piece, but ended up spitting it out. "Uuuu! Too sweet!"

Yu took a bite from Kenta's plate. "What do you mean? It's fine to me!"

And thus it was found out that Yu liked his deserts a little (well, maybe a LOT) sweeter than every other normal person.

* * *

Demure was at the top of the Beyblade Battlegrounds, and it was such a thrilling experience for him. He had only been up there twice before; once to battle Kyoya and once to battle Nile. But this was different. He was now stationed at the top to battle anyone who came up to _him_! Demure sure hoped that someone would appear soon so he could battle, because right now there were only a few weak bladers around losing on the first, second, and third floors.

"Oh, come on and hurry up and get up here to battle me!" he said to himself. But the wait continued.

* * *

"But sir, we aren't old enough or experienced enough to be learning moves like that," one little kid piped up.

"What nonsense! Everyone needs to know how to defend themselves!" Ian Garcia was starting to get annoyed at these little kids that he was supposed to be teaching karate at Doji's Dojo. He had thought that starting out with breaking a brick would have been simple enough for them, but they claimed never to have even broken a board.

"We usually just do the motions in the air like this," one girl said, demonstrating by doing a punch and kick sequence in the air.

"Well that's lame," Ian declared. "So what if you know the technique! You need to actually practice it on something or you'll never be able to fight off a mugger."

"But sir, there _aren't_ any muggers around."

"If you travel somewhere there may be," Ian retorted. "Now pay attention. I'll teach you how to break a board, since you're all too scared to break a brick."

An assistant held the board, and Ian broke it easily with a side-kick. "Okay, now it's your turn," he told the scared and somewhat traumatized kids.

* * *

Toby, who was at Konzern's Kool Kleening, realized that one of his staff members had serious issues. He couldn't be trusted to do even the simplest of jobs. That staff member's name was Tyson Freshman. Toby, who was new to the whole cleaning business, really didn't know how to deal with his incompetence, and wondered why in the world Julian Konzern of all people would put up with him. So after yet another mishap due to that employee, Toby called up Konzern.

"Julian, this is Toby. I need a bit of help, I think. It's this one employee, his name's Tyson Freshman."

"Ah, that one," Konzern said knowingly. "I keep him around because he's funny to laugh at. And yell at. My advice to you would be that whenever he messes up, yell 'Stupid Freshman!' It helps focus him, and takes out your anger and frustration on him. A win-win situation! Bye!"

Konzern hung up, and Toby was left wondering if that was really the best advice he could give...

* * *

Ryo, meanwhile, had wandered over to Tsubasa's Tank Top Shop and entered it, preparing to sell tons and tons of stuff. He stood at the check-out counter with a silly smile on his face for ten minutes straight. It was then that he began to realize something wasn't quite right. His next hint was when one person walked up and looked in the window. Ryo smiled and waved, but that person frowned and walked away. This happened several more times before Ryo finally realized that people didn't want to shop at Tsubasa's Tank Top Shop because _he_ was running it. So he walked outside and proclaimed, "Why doesn't anyone want to buy stuff from the Immortal Phoenix?"

No one answered. Ryo gave up with a sigh and walked back inside. Since no one wanted to purchase from him, he looked around for the TV remote (Tsubasa had recently installed a flat screen TV, which often showed commercials for his store, but sometimes was used just to watch normal TV).

"Aha!" Ryo spotted the remote and pressed the power button. He was proud to see his station (which, in Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land, was channel 3) pop up first, but then upset. The 'Ryo TV' logo in the corner had been replaced. As the picture cleared, Ryo ground his teeth as his mortal enemy appeared onscreen.

"...and welcome to Ryuga TV, where it's all the Dragon Emperor all the time. At least for today. As you viewers probably know, I'm replacing that idiot who usually runs this station for the day. And since today is Opposite Day, I now bring you a special program: A live viewing of me talking to people at the new places they run. All this and more coming up right after this commercial break."

Ryo, who had his jaw practically on the floor, immediately turned off the TV and set about trying to forget what he had just seen.

* * *

"Um... okay," said a cameraman. "First up on our list is Chris's Car & Car Repair Shop. And... action!"

"Yes viewers, the Dragon Emperor is back, and I'm currently at Chris's Car & Car Repair Shop, which is being run by Chiyun and Chaoxin. Guys, how are you doing today?"

"We're doing great Ryuga!" answered Chaoxin.

"Except that we don't know anything about how to fix cars at all," muttered Chiyun.

"Aw..." said Ryuga. "I suppose this is the part where I say something encouraging to you, but that's not my style and look at the time! It's on to Wales's Waterworks."

The camera cut and then started back up again. Ryuga was saying, "So Julian, how is it running two other peoples' businesses?"

"Oh, it's not bad. I'm used to it. I'm heading over to Zeo's Zoo soon," Julian replied.

"One more question; Konzern, what exactly happens at Wales's Waterworks?"

"As far as I can tell, it's a plumbing facility which also regulates water and sewage for the town. Not the most attractive place."

The camera then cut to Ryuto's Roller Coasters. "The main office is suspiciously quiet," Ryuga noted. "I'm going to sneak in and see what's up." The camera followed him inside. Teru was seen sitting calmly in a chair while Tetsuya was hiding under a table and shivering.

"Don't mind the crab, he's still terrified of the ride he had on The Cobra an hour ago and hasn't come out from under that table since," Teru informed.

Ryuga yawned, personally thinking Tetsuya was lame for being scared of that awesome ride. "Well, that's nice," he said, leaving immediately. Time to get on to the next place. He soon arrived at Jack's JArt.

"I don't really want to go in there, but..." Ryuga opened the door and the cameraman nearly dropped his camera due to the horrendous images he encountered.

Ryuga looked at the list he had compiled of who was running what. Then he looked at the mess. "Okay, there's no way anyone could find Hycuto in this mess. Anyone except me, that is!" Ryuga walked down a few isles, leaned over a shelf and picked up Hycuto by the scruff of his neck.

"Oh Ryuga! Thank you for saving me from that nasty pile of art!" the dog said.

Ryuga promptly dropped him on the floor. "Hycuto, can you answer some questions that our viewers may wish to hear?"

"Of course I can!"

"Well too bad. We're out of time!" with that, Ryuga walked out the door. Hycuto stared dumbly after him.

"Alright viewers, I'm heading over to Gingka's Gangly Burgers." The door creaked open.

"Ryuga!" squealed Kenta, who was wearing Gingka's too-big chef hat.

"Hey twerp. What's cooking?"

"Burgers."

"Are they any good?" Ryuga hoped they were better than Gingka's originals had been.

"Of course!" Kenta handed one to him.

Ryuga took one look at it, took a couple bites, and threw it in the trash can. "It's okay."

"Then why'd you throw it away?" Kenta was close to tears.

"It's all part of the job. I go to food places, eat a bit, and then leave so I've still got an appetite for places to come."

"Oh," Kenta said in a small voice as Ryuga left the premises.

The camera showed scenes of Ryuga at Gaser's Gas Station (where Titi didn't know what he was doing at all), Mei Mei's Market (where Bao was doing just fine; he ran a bakery, after all), Enzo's Envelopes (where Aguma was sitting around bored), Julian's Junkyard (Aleksey was searching the heaps for rocket parts), Johannes's Yachts (Gaser was out sailing), Tobio's Post Office (Benkei waved while sorting the mail), Kenta's Ketchup (Tobio was practicing his Capricorn's sniper shot on pickle jars), Hycuto's Dog Food (Klaus was surprised to find it mobbed with cats for whatever reason. Maybe because Hycuto was gone...), Lavushka Library (where Salhan was looking lost by the overflowing book return bin), Vridick's Radical Pets (where Sophie had found an adorable puppy to play with while business was slow), and the B-pit (where Tsubasa was somewhat-expertly repairing the beys of those unfortunate enough to have lost at the Beyblade Battlegrounds).

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, I bring you Hikaru's Hospital. Let's go see what the OTA musketeers are up to." Ryuga walked into the main lobby and began talking to Osamu. "So, how are you and your friends coping with this hospital work?"

"It's alright, I guess. Thankfully not many people have come in today."

"Ah. Thanks for that information," Ryuga said, he himself wondering why anyone would care. "It's on to Sophie's Soap where my, as he considers himself, arch-rival, Gingka is."

Upon entering, Gingka was immediately spotted behind the counter, his flaming red hair hardly noticeable due to the fact that he was asleep in a chair. Ryuga silently laughed and then exited. "Looks like that kid got bored in there all by his lonesome. But it makes sense that Sophie's usual customers wouldn't want to buy from some out-of-control blader like him. Let's move on."

The camera started up again outside of Yuki's Yams. Ryuga was saying, "So Shortpants, enlighten us all as to how it feels to be the only one working your own business."

"It's terrible. I feel like the biggest loser out there," Yuki sniffled.

"Aww... that's _so _sad. But all you need to prove it is a bey battle with me! Hahahaha!" Ryuga walked out of the yam shop laughing. Once outside he mentioned, "That kid needs to buy some air freshener. It smells like moldy potatoes in there."

Ryuga's next stops were at Dashan's Donuts (where Johannes had practically no customers due to his reputation and rumors of his horrible cooking), Tetsuya & Teru's Hair & Nails (Doji was looking lost, and Ryuga laughed at him), Salhan's Supersoaking Water Park (where Team Lavushka was having a blast), Aleksey's Arcade (Chris told Ryuga that the constant sound of kids playing the shooting video games was sooooo annoying), Benkei's Bath & Beauty (the Face Hunters wondered why in the world Benkei had chosen this kind of business; it was so not him!), Yu's Yo-yos (a very bored Damian showed how he could do ten yo-yos at a time; one on each finger), Dynamis's Dinosaurs (Selen was leading tours), Hyoma's Hotel (Dynamis was right at home welcoming people to Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land), Bao's Bread Bakery (Hyoma showed a surprising passion/obsession for watching bread rise, which Ryuga said was only slightly more entertaining than watching paint dry or an apple rot), Masamune's Make-up (Wales was in the hair section), Ian's Ice Cream (Vridick seemed to be eating more than he sold to the customers), Toby's Tacos (Zeo said he enjoyed running his friend's shop), Face Hunter's Facilities (Dashan was, for once in his life, slacking off), and Aguma's Artillery (Mei Mei was keeping it tidy).

Ryuga sighed. He didn't usually socialize this much. "Ah well, on to... Chi & Chao's Chess & Checkers."

Masamune greeted Ryuga at once. "I love it here! I have had so much fun all day. I just play games, and occasionally sell to customers but I usually ignore them and I won Uno five times against Yu and another five times against Kenta and then Gingka came in and we talked for like an hour and oh I can't stop talking now am I on TV I've always wanted to be on TV hello everyone-"

The camera abruptly cut off and then resumed play just inside Damian's Department Store. "I had to cut that off because that clown boy would have gone rambling on forever," Ryuga said. "Wait, what's this?"

Enzo was attempting to hang-glide off the top floor to the bottom floor. The way the store was set up, it was indeed possible, although it involved precision, which Enzo clearly did not have. He crashed multiple times and eventually came to a stop at Ryuga's feet. "Mommy?" he asked confusedly.

"Um..." The camera then cut to Argo's Appliances.

"I'm right at home her among technology," said Madoka.

"Hnn. Good for you." Ryuga didn't want to hang around forever. He had places to go still before Opposite Day ended.

His next stop was at OTA Land. "Are you having fun battling little kids?" Ryuga asked Hikaru, his face a total deadpan so that she couldn't tell whether or not he was serious.

"Um... yes?"

"Is that a question or an answer?"

"An answer?"

Ryuga sighed. "Clearly this is going nowhere, so I'll leave." The camera started up again at Klaus's Cloth. "So King, how do you like your new business?"

King sighed and twiddled his thumbs. "I had no idea that a cloth shop would be this boring," he admitted.

At Titi's Teriyaki, Ryuga discovered that Argo was actually a good cook. "Congratulations on creating a dish that everyone can enjoy!" King (who had followed Ryuga there) announced. King then stayed put and ate and ate while Ryuga continued on to his own store, Ryuga's Readables.

"Hola Ryuga! Waz up?" Ryuto asked happily. "I've got to say that I've enjoyed running your store. It's amazing."

"Thanks Ryuto." Ryuga took great pride in his store. "As for what's up, I'm just wrapping up this live showing of how everyone in town is doing today on Opposite Day. I'm sure that if Ryo is watching this right now, he's probably still not over the fact that I've changed his station to Ryuga TV, where it's all the Dragon Emperor all the time."

*Off Wherever Ryo Is...*

"Why he!" Ryo looked about to blow a fuse. That is, if he was a machine...

*Back at Ryuga's Readables...*

Ryuto laughed. "I bet he is, I bet he is."

"Well, I've got to go, Ryuto," Ryuga said. "Enjoy the rest of your day at my awesome store."

"Sure will," Ryuto said with a laugh.

Ryuga talked as he walked to the very last place he needed to visit. "This is the Dragon Emperor here on Ryuga TV, and I'm wrapping up my live showing on Opposite Day. My last stop is the Beyblade Battlegrounds, so buckle up, cause I'm going to the top!"

There followed a series of explosions and flashes of red as Ldrago Destructor defeated each level with ease and made it to the final room, where Demure awaited them. "Well well well, you think you can defeat me, Demure?" Ryuga asked as his fiery aura glowed strongly around him.

"I don't expect I can, but I won't back down from a fight!"

"That's the spirit!" Ryuga smirked, readying Ldrago for battle. "This'll be shown on live TV, so 3, 2, 1, let it rip!"

Ldrago and Scorpio spun in the stadium, each in their different directions. "Go Ldrago, attack!" Ryuga wasn't going to go easy on the Wild Fang member. His bey clashed hard and sent up an explosion as Scorpio smashed into the far side of the stadium.

"Umm. Ahh!" _Ldrago Destructor F:S is an attack-type bey. There is no way I could win by clashing head-on. I'll need to take a more subtle approach, _thought Demure. "Okay Scorpio, dodge and weave!" Ldrago rushed again and again at Demure's bey, but missed every time.

"Grr! You're making me angry!" Ryuga growled. Then he brightened. "Just kidding!"

The form of Ldrago rose into the air and dove toward Scorpio, shooting flame out of its mouth.

"Aah! Dodge it Scorpio!" Demure's bey dashed out of the way with incredible speed, but Ldrago merely adjusted its flame and caught Scorpio a split second later. The battle was over just like that.

"Ha!" Ryuga's bey returned to his hand, where it smoked for a bit before cooling. "Nice try Demure, but you knew you didn't stand a chance against me."

Demure was busy prying his bey out of the stadium floor. "Well, that's all folks. Opposite day is almost over. I'll be heading back to the studio to do the nightly weather that no one cares about, news that no one cares about, and making fun of people in town which everyone cares about! Dragon Emperor over and out!"

*Meanwhile...*

"Good thing we didn't break anything," Kyoya said.

"You've got that right," said Nile. "I wasn't using my full power."

"Me either. Otherwise we may have broken something."

Nile sighed. "I can't wait until we get back to the Beyblade Battlegrounds tomorrow."

"Me to. I now fully appreciate our awesome business," said Kyoya.

"I wonder if everyone else was as bored as we were," Nile wondered.

*Elsewhere...*

"Oh boy! Ryuga's store is amazing! Today was soooo cool!" Ryuto said to himself as he walked home. "I wonder if everyone else had as awesome a day as I did."

**Kyoya: The Beyblade Battlegrounds is soooo much better than a shower shop. I was incredibly bored, and so was Nile, right?**

**Nile: Yep.**

**Ryuga: I didn't expect to have so much – I'm going to regret saying this – fun.**

**Kyoya: [gasp!] Did Ryuga just say he had fun?**

**Nile: Unbelievable.**

**Ryuga: I knew I'd regret it.**

**Me: Well, this fic may be coming to an end, but I've got plans for another Beyblade Metal Fight story, a series of Kyoya-and-Nile-centric one-shots. Also, I have plans brewing for another crossover, non-beyblade. Well, that's it for now. Review anyone?**


	37. Hellos and Goodbyes

**Hi, starsnow back with the final REAL chapter of this story. But there will be an epilogue, so look for it in about two weeks. Next, I've got to tell you all something I forgot to about the last chapter. I actually wrote all the names and businesses out on slips of paper and picked them out of not hats, but plastic bags. Those results last chapter were the results I got! And now for... Kai!**

**Kai: xxstarsnowxx does not own Beyblade or Beyblade Metal Fight.**

**Kyoya: And if you're interested...**

**Nile: Check out her new story featuring us!**

**Kyoya & Nile: _Tales of Awesomeness_.**

_Chapter 37 Hellos and Goodbyes_

"Man, I can't believe this is our last day in Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land," whined Tyson to his fellow Bladebreakers. "It feels like... a second home now!"

"That's a far cry from how you felt in the beginning, Tyson," Ray pointed out.

"Yeah. You couldn't stop complaining about how the town hated your friend Zeo," said Hilary.

"Well, yeah, but now that I've seen all the damage Zeo did, I can understand how everyone in town feels, even if it's not mutual." Tyson smiled at everyone. "But really, guys. It feels like we've been here forever!"

"We've been here for several months," Kai pointed out emotionlessly.

"Wow! Has it really been that long?" asked Max.

Kenny shrugged. "Time flies when you're having fun."

"All the same, guys, I'll be sad to leave," said Tyson. "I can still clearly remember the day we came into town..."

As Tyson was off on his trip down memory lane, the others planned their departure to the airport. "We are _not_ wandering aimlessly through the woods again," Hilary insisted. "We should get a ride from someone. Maybe Nile would drop us off. After all, he was the first one to meet us when we were hopelessly lost."

"No, we shouldn't bother him," Kenny said. "He was nice enough to help once, but twice? We shouldn't be asking so many favors we can't repay."

"I'd say we should hire a cab or something. Does anyone own a car rental place?" asked Ray.

"Chris runs Chris's Car & Car Repair Shop," Kai pointed out. He knew the town the best out of all of them. "I think he does rentals."

"We should go there to make sure," Max said. "Lead the way, Kai."

* * *

"Hey dad, what would you like to order?" Gingka asked. Ryo was at his burger shop, still moping about 'Ryuga TV' and 'all the Dragon Emperor all the time' from Opposite Day, which had been exactly a week ago.

"I'll have your regular hamburger," Ryo said. "What? I'm not very hungry," he added, seeing the look on Gingka's face. He moved glumly over to the 'Pick-up' line.

King, who was next in line, stepped up and ordered his usual, and then began chatting, as usual, to Gingka. "Opposite Day was a total success! I mean, I may not have had a ton of fun, but Ryuto, Demure, and tons of others did!"

"I didn't," said Gingka. "I was at Sophie's Soap..."

But King was talking on. "Gingka, that's nice, but you're not the only one who didn't like it. Kyoya and Nile were annoyed at getting stuck at Selen's Showers, and I'm sure Yuki was upset he was stuck with his own place!"

"I wouldn't have minded being at _my_ own place," Ryo muttered under his breath. It was then, that to his great misfortune he overheard two customers deep in their own conversation.

"Man, Opposite Day was the bomb!" Masamune Kadoya was exclaiming excitedly from a booth in close proximity to Gingka's father. "I loved hanging around at Chi & Chao's Chess & Checkers!"

"I enjoyed working right here in Gingka's restaurant. I had the TV set up just right so I could see how awesome Ryuga made Ryo's business. Oh man, I could hardly look away!" Kenta exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Masamune said enthusiastically while munching on his fries. "Ryuga TV was _way _better than Ryo TV ever could be!"

The two of them didn't realize Ryo was within earshot of this all, muttering under his breath that it wasn't that great, not that great at all. But then Ryo's order came and he happily forgot the conversation for a bit as he ate.

* * *

"Man, I'm so glad to be back here," Nile said with a content sigh. "Opposite Day was soooo boring for us." He and Kyoya were relaxing at the top of the pyramid as they waited for the first challengers to arrive.

Kyoya nodded in agreement. Then something on one of the many camera screens caught his attention. He pressed a few buttons to enlarge it, and realized that people outside were waving to a camera. He noted that Kai was in the group. "Nile, we've got guests, and I don't think they're here to battle."

He and Nile descended from their pyramid to see what was up. "Nile, Kyoya, we just wanted to say goodbye," Tyson (who had elected himself spokesperson) said. "I know that we might have had our differences when it came to the Zeo Zaggart problem, but I understand where you're coming from. Zeo was bent on taking over this town, and though I am his friend, he should know he can't do something like that."

Hilary added on what Tyson had forgotten. "I don't think we ever properly thanked you, Nile, for bringing us into town. It would have been a loooong walk."

"And thank _you _for discovering the robo-factory. It was a great find," Nile said.

"Yeah, it really helped us eliminate a huge chunk of Zeo's army," said Kyoya. "Even though Tetsuya was the one to end up controlling them..."

Max piped up, "Speaking of the crab, I heard King saying that he hasn't been seen in quite a while. I wonder what happened to him?"

Kyoya and Nile shrugged.

*At a random beach...*

"CRAAABY!" Tetsuya said as he ran – I mean scuttled – around in the sand with all his crab friends and robot friends as well. "You're all such great scuttlers," he told the robots. "Especially you," he told the robot he had named Sandy. "Now let's all PARTY!"

Strobe lights strung from trees started blaring and dancing back and forth as the robo-DJ, Mac, cranked the tunes. Tetsuya scuttle-danced with all his friends, new and old, in one giant beach party. This lasted for weeks and weeks, until after a few months, he got tired of dancing at the beach and brought all his friends back to Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land, where they were accepted rather well into society there. But that's a different story.

*Back outside the Beyblade Battlegrounds...*

"Whatever. Who knows, who cares," came a new voice behind the Bladebreakers, Kyoya, and Nile. They all turned around and saw that Ryuga had come over. "I heard that you're leaving, Kai."

Kai nodded. "Hey! We're leaving too!" Tyson said in his unnecessarily loud voice.

Ryuga ignored him. "Anyway, I came to give some last advice before we leave."

"_We_? I didn't think you were leaving town, Ryuga," Kyoya noted.

"Oh, not for good, Kyoya. You can't get rid of me that easily. I'm just going off for some more training," said Ryuga. He then pulled Kai off to the side and told him not to neglect his own training. "If you keep it up, you'll be able to beat Tyson for sure. He strikes me as a slacker."

Kai looked over and saw Tyson standing sort of slumped over. "You know, you're right. This entire time we've been in town, Tyson's barely trained at all, except for a few times at the Beyblade Battlegrounds and a few other times to show off in front of kids. I'll battle him once we get back to Japan and have the upper hand. Unlike him, I've kept up my training."

Ryuga smirked and then the two of them headed back to the others. Tyson, Ray, Hilary, Max, Kenny, and even Kai said their goodbyes to the co-owners of the Beyblade Battlegrounds and wished them luck in their business. They even bid farewell to Ryuga, who then closed up his own store, Ryuga's Readables, and headed out to who-knows-where for his training.

In fact, the Bladebreakers didn't even need to rent a car for their departure; Nile offered to drive them to the airport out of the kindness of his heart – that and the fact that they'd helped out and played their part in The Plan he and Kyoya had created.

As their plane lifted off the ground, Kai glanced out the window and saw the very tip of the pyramid know as the Beyblade Battlegrounds out of the corner of his eye. It was hard to see even when one was looking very hard for it. Yes, Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land would remain a mystery to much of the world, as it very well should. Which reminded him, "Tyson, everyone. We shouldn't speak of what we've seen on this trip."

Tyson was confused. "Huh? Why not?"

Ray jumped into the conversation. "Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land is like a haven of sorts for all those famous bladers. I'm sure King never thought it would become such, but now it is."

"Yeah," Hilary said. "Those famous bladers can live there in peace, and have fun all the while."

So it was agreed that the Beyblade Town remain a secret kept safely with them.

*In Japan...*

"Well father, it failed."

"What failed?"

"The robots," Zeo said sadly to Dr. Zaggart.

"WHAT!?"

After venting his rage around the house, Dr. Zaggart finally calmed down and took on a totally different demeanor. He put his arm around Zeo and said, "Son, this is a good lesson to you. Just as I've learned my lessons about beyblading, so you have now as well."

"I fail to see how this should make me feel any better," Zeo commented blandly.

Dr. Zaggart said, "It is indeed a lesson: You can't always win. I learned it the hard way, and so have you. Normally I'd say 'if you can't beat them, join them', but I doubt that would work in this situation. So here's my advice..."

*A month later...*

"Hey, you know who we haven't seen in a while?" Tyson asked Max, Ray, Kai, Kenny, and Hilary. They were eating burgers which Ray had purchased, just as they had several months ago before they had ever seen or heard of Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land.

"A lot of people," responded Kai.

"Specifics please, Kai," Tyson prompted.

"Kyoya, Nile, King, etc." Kai said.

"Well, that's true, but I was thinking more along the lines of-"

"Zeo Zaggart?" Max guessed.

"However did you guess, Max?" Tyson asked over-dramatically. "Are you a mind reader?"

"No," Max responded. "I think it's because this entire conversation seems very familiar."

"Yeah, as in 'we had this conversation before we went to look for Zeo and found ourselves in the middle of a giant battle' familiar," pointed out Hilary.

"I assume that now we'll have to go off to his house and find him," Ray said. "After all, if this is a true deja vu moment that's what we need to do next."

Kenny said, "Yeah! We haven't seen him since he tried to take over Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land! I wonder if he's mad at us or anything..."

"Well, off we go!" Tyson said, hitting his 'lines' right on.

* * *

At the Zaggart residence, Tyson rung the doorbell.

Ding dong! Dr. Zaggart came to open the door. "Tyson, why are you here again? I heard you found Zeo in America." The doctor was wondering why that kid kept showing up on his doorstep, even though it had been several months.

"Hello Dr.," Tyson said politely. "I was wondering where Zeo is? Is he home?"

"Actually, I'll have to say no to that question again." Dr. Zaggart then explained himself. "Zeo's off in some local woodlands that he purchased. Well actually, I purchased it for him."

"Um, where is this woodland area?" Hilary asked.

"Over that way," Dr. Zaggart said, pointing. Kenny followed his gaze and led the way into the woods.

"Gee, this seems _very_ familiar," Max pointed out.

"I wonder what we'll find in _these_ woods," said Ray.

The gang soon found out when they hit a semi-well-tread path which they followed deeper into the woods. Up ahead, they spotted a sign. A neon, colorful, attention-getting sign that read: Welcome to Anti-King Land; population: 10.

"Huh. Guess this place isn't very popular," Kai said. Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land had a lot more bladers in it than this place, that was for sure.

"Yep, this is where Zeo's at all right," Kenny said with a sigh as Tyson grinned.

"This is hilarious! I should have know Zeo would pull something funny like this!" He doubled over laughing. The others didn't find it that funny, and Kai didn't think it was funny at all. Then again, he rarely found anything laugh-worthy.

Upon further exploration, Tyson and the others discovered Zeo Zaggart himself. After they said their hellos, Zeo explained how his dad told him to do this. "It makes me feel like – even if he doesn't know about this place – I got back at King at last," he said proudly. "I should take a picture and send it to him. Do any of you have his email address?"

Against his better judgment, Max gave him the address: Vareiares_King .

Zeo Zaggart wasted no time snapping a pic of his small but flamboyant town (along with the Anti-King Land sign) and sending it to his arch-enemy. "Let's see what he thinks about that!"

Kai rolled his eyes and sighed as Zeo led everyone on a tour of the rather small town. It was by no means as incredibly awesome as Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land, and had only a few rather weak bladers that were somewhatly friends with Zeo Zaggart; no one as awesome as Kyoya or Nile (who had become rather close friends to Kai), or their business, the Beyblade Battlegrounds, but it was a start, and for someone like Zeo Zaggart, it seemed to be a pretty good one.

All too soon for Tyson (and all too late for Kai), the tour was over and the sun was setting. "We'll definitely come back!" Tyson said, doing some complex handshake with Zeo.

Everyone else said goodbye and then left to their respective homes. And whenever Kai saw a dark shadowy figure in an alleyway, he couldn't help but wonder if it was Ryuga, stopping silently by to check up on him while on some kind of training mission. Tyson went back to Anti-King Land constantly, and Hilary, Kenny, Max, and Ray went on with their lives, training and just getting back to normal. But they would never forget their trip (which had taken _much_ longer than expected) to Anti-Zeo Zaggart Land, and all the friends that they had met.

**Me: So, in the epilogue I'll be featuring the promised story of Tetsuya and his reformed robo-army plus some other stuff!**

**King: Yeah, like how I react to the picture that Zeo Zaggart sent me. Now excuse me while I vent in a corner. [runs off]**

**Me: … **

**And just a bit more about the Bladebreakers!**

**I may even feature some more about Anti-King Land, but I'm not sure... So for now, farewell! I hope to be happily reading some reviews later! :)**


End file.
